Forgotten Kyuubi
by ForgottenKyuubi
Summary: When Naruto meets a new girl, he would have never imagined the things to come after it. Learning more about the Kyuubi than he had ever wanted, and exploring his forgotten and painful past as well as learning what creates love, and what kills it...
1. Prologue

Prologue

She fell to her knees in shock, as she saw the huge beast destroy the peaceful village of Konoha. She heard the countless shrieks and yells coming from the terrified citizens of the leaf village as their world crumbled around them. Her sensitive hearing could hear every scream, dieing heartbeat, and collapsing building. As much as she wished it would end, she knew it wouldn't. No, the kyuubi would continue to destroy that beautiful village no matter how much she wished it wouldn't. She also knew what was going to happen next, as much as her heart screamed for the man to stop, she knew Minato was making his way to the beast.

She knew alone, no matter how skilled the man was, he would not stop it. She was faced with a choice. She could either kill her childhood friend for hundreds of years, who grew to be her lover, or she could kill her best friend who was -ironicly-another lover. Which to save, which to kill? Friend or friend, lover or lover?

Her heart was ripped to shreds as she saw the man leap to defend Konoha. A few tears dropped, and she gasped with pain as the emotions of it all hit her like a billion ton rock. It hit her heart and blew it to pieces, as she was faced with the decision. Her mind screamed at her to move, to get a grip and save _someone_...but she remained on her hands and knees far from the destruction that took place.

Memories flew around her head, all the whispers, laughter, tears, and words humming like a thousand angry wasps as she tried to think of what to do. She clutched her head and screamed like a mad person. Of course, literally it was enough to drive her to insanity. She rolled on her back with wide eyes, blood vessels threatening to burst inside them. And yet, amongst all the turmoil in her head, she heard every moment of the battle. Every snap of the Kyuubi's jaw, and every vicious roar it gave, as well as every cry of pain and anger the hokage gave out.

Elsewhere in the village she heard the man's frantic student, trying to get to his sensei and keep his comrade safe. Only to be in vain as she was crushed underneath a falling building. The other student cried out in anguish as she was silenced from the world. In another area, she heard the small cries of a baby, only shredding her heart further as she listened to the building crumble around it. A woman as well as many other medic nin fled from the building. The woman handed the child off to someone else and she dashed off toward the Kyuubi. Her mind began crying out to the woman, telling her to stop where she was and to flee to safety. There was no usefulness where she was heading. Only death.

She charged at the beast, as Minato realized her presence, and yelled at her, only to become distracted and merely flicked away carelessly by one of the Kyuubi's tails into a building. The woman cut at the beast with all her weapons and all her might, willing the beast to die...but was finally noticed by the beast, and crushed underneath its paw. Minato yelled a mixture of sadness and anger in his voice as he charged at the beast. Her eyes further widened when she realized who the woman was. It was none other than Minato's beloved wife. Kushina.

Her mind raged at her now, screaming for her to get up and battle. This is what she had always cursed and hated her kin for. They destroyed the world around them, and every happy future possible. They destroyed the future, and all that it held. This is the point where she would no longer tolerate this battle. But still, she was glued to the ground. Her mind had stilled and the raging battle had been decided, but her heart still ached and bled from the abuse that had been done to it. She clutched at her chest. She had never felt a pain greater than now, and doubted she ever would again.

Her attention turned back to the battle as the sounds from the village still pounded in her ears. The Kyuubi was roaring with anger, charging after something. She focused harder to find Minato was running away from the beast. This both angered and confused her. He was a hokage, meant to protect his people, and never to show fear, but here he was running like a coward. But there had to be a reason he was running. The only problem is she wasn't sure what it could possibly be. But there was also relief in her mixture of feelings.

He was going to get to safety, and save himself and his child. Which, she found he was running toward to. At this point, the child had fallen silent, and appeared to somehow be sleeping amongst all the turmoil in the village around him. The man ran toward him at full speed and swept him from the nurse's arms, who cried out in terror when she realized what had happened.

Minato placed the child somewhere along the way, and ran at the Kyuubi, an anger blazing in his soul like none other. His eyes sparking with hatred and vengeance, ready to be taken out on the beast. The girl listening flew up onto her feet and cried out, realizing what the man was prepared to do. She cried out with all her force and power as he flew at the kyuubi and attacked with all his might.

There was an earth shaking 'BOOM' as he hit the beast under the jaw, and knocked it to the ground. He panted heavily, watching over the kitsune to make sure it did not stir. He fell to his knees and stared at the ground. He was there for some time, and seemed to be contemplating something. Something of great importance as his eyes dialated over and over. Finally he stood up and fled back to the place where he had hidden his child. He picked up the baby tenderly and kissed his head as a few teardrops hit the child and startled it awake. Their eyes met and the father squeezed his eyes shut, trying to stop the flow of tears. he knew what he had to do, and regretted it.

He made his way as slow as possible where the unconscious Kyuubi lay. By the time he got back, the monstrous animal was again beginning to stir. Now, the stream of tears was flowing freely down his face as he laid his son down in front of the Kyuubi and began the long sequence of seals. The girl began to run with all her speed back to the village, when full realization hit her. When she knew what the man was going to do. She was on the outskirts of the village when she heard him hit the last seal, and heard the whistle of chakra being pulled into the boy.

She ran toward the man, watching the spectacular lights of chakra flying through the air as the beast's energy surrounded the boy's and blended together. She also watched in horror, as Minato's soul was drawn in and offered to the seal, adding a third blend of chakra in the air. She got as close as she could to the whirlwind of energy without being blown away and yelled at the man, even knowing it was too late.

Finally the cyclone stopped, and the weak man made a few stumbling steps toward his son, who he fell by and held tight to his chest. Finally a group of people, including the girl ran toward the fallen Hokage and huddled around him. She recognized the student, as well as the man's teacher, and the previous Hokage. They looked at the weakened man as he held a kunai in front of him, protecting his sleeping child, who now held the contained energy of the kyuubi.

"Don't you dare touch my son..." He choked out with mad eyes as he backed away from the people around him. He had good reason to, as the villagers started to realize what had happened, and where the Kyuubi was. The man's teacher stood up with harsh eyes.

"You heard what he said! Back off!" He too grasped a Kunai in his hands as he stood over the group. The people backed away a little, but only waiting for the opportune moment when they could go after the child. The student looked at his fallen teacher with anguish.

"Sensei...please. You can't die! Obito's gone, Rin's gone...my father. Who will I have left?!" She had never seen the quiet student this way before. The man looked at his student with fading eyes.

"You will carry on...as you must. For all of us. For me, Obito, Rin, and your father, you have to be strong." There was a small silence as the four huddled around him heard him choke in a few breaths as blood leaked in his internal organs. Finally the man's teacher spoke to him.

"You fool...why didn't you just wait for me or sensei? We could've helped...your life could've been spared." The young man smiled.

"Even I couldn't tell you why. I just did..."

"You could've waited for me..." The girl finally spoke with tears in her eyes as she looked at the dieing man. He shook his head.

"I could never have asked you to do that. I heard you struggling from a mile away already..." He said it with mild humor, but she knew it was true. The man's voice hardened a bit.

"All of you, I have things to ask of you as my dieing wish." They all flinched a bit at the reality he was dieing. "My son...this boy will not be remember for the beast he carries, but as a hero for the sacrifice he made for this village. Inari...please keep him safe. Watch over him and keep him safe. That goes for you too sensei...treat him like he was me. Teach him what you know..." The girl and the man shifted uncomfortably. The man's requests were not easy. "Kakashi...you take care of him too. Make sure he grows strong, and healthy. To be a mighty shinobi..." He smiled at the dark sky, and gave his son one last kiss on the forehead as all the color left his eyes, and he passed away. The girl shook with tears and sobs. Minato Namikaze, was dead and gone from the world.


	2. Pursuit

Okay! You all gave me real good feedback! And by that i mean, you all said nothing -.-' therefore! I shall reconstruct....as long as I can avoid my yelling mom 0.0 She seems to be quite angry with me today.....So I'll try to write a better(er) story whilst dodging death! Yaaaaaaay.... PS: has anyone ever tried reading FF without even knowing the original storyline? My friend attempted this with my prologue the other night...I'm pretty sure her search engine and her brain are pretty fried lol

Disclaimer: I own only what I create

Chapter One: Pursuit

She ran as fast as she could through the thick forest, dodging heavily looming branches and thick underbrush that snagged at her clothes. Her mind briefly wondered if she should attempt to jump into one of the trees and continue the pursuit up above. But considering her clumsiness, which was what got her into this whole mess in the first place, she decided against it. She could hear the two following her conversing briefly, one yelling at the other. Their banter was amusing to listen to, and entertaining-or it would have been if she hadn't been running for her life-however she knew the two were dangerous and particularly lethal. A few kunai whizzed past her making the adrenaline pump even faster through her veins. Due to bad aim or good fortune she wasn't sure, but they continued to miss her.

She was reaching the end of her limit, not being able to run much more. She considered letting them catch her for a moment...but decided against it. And then considered it again. But before she could decide, her world went black as she felt a cold 'thud' to the back of her head.

The two ran after her, one cheering happily the other yelling.

"Tobi I swear...if you don't shut up I will personally see to it that tomorrow morning you don't wake up alive. We finally have her close enough to actually touch and see, and you're still messing around hm!" The man in the spiraled orange masked squealed with glee as he flew in the trees and danced around the other.

"Don't worry senpai! I'll get her!" He cheered and squealed a bit more before darting a little faster to catch up with their prey. Only about ten feet behind her and ready to strike, he stopped abruptly, making the other come crashing into him. The two fell to the ground.

"Owwwww Deidara senpai that hurt!"

"You idiot! Why did you stop hm?!" Deidara got up and brushed himself off. Tobi remained on the ground.

"I was looking for something to knock her out with! I can't just fight her!"

"You fool! How else were you expecting to capture her hm? You're not just going to knock her out!" Tobi leapt up, apparently pleased with something and darted after the girl again. Deidara followed, still grumbling under his breath. Tobi disappeared from his sights and not long after he heard cheering and whooping.

"Senpai! Senpai! I got her!" Deidara nearly tripped over himself. The fool had actually caught it?! He sped up a little, not wanting her to wake back up and escape yet again. He wasn't too far when he stopped, dead in his tracks. There was a different chakra in the air now...neither his, Tobi's or the girl's. His eyes widened and his heart sped up with excitement. The kyuubi...

"Tobi!" He called out for the other. No matter how useless Tobi seemed, he would need his help with the kyuubi. He nearly danced like a child with all the happiness he was feeling. Not only did they catch the girl-surprisingly easily-they would also capture the kyuubi! All in one day...

"Yeeesssss senpai?" Tobi danced over happily. Deidara opened his mouth to tell his partner of his new discovery, only to cry out in surprise as the world went dark as they were both swallowed by a huge toad. Deidara swore and cursed with all the strength he had as he beat at the walls of the toad's stomach. Tobi only sat down cross legged, as he noticed the acid dripping from the walls. He yelled brutally as he jammed all of his exploding clay in both the esophagus and intestine of the toad. He was not going to lose _both_ of his catches, due to some damn toad! Tobi hummed some sort of tune as he saw his senior walking back and forth, working on the clay.

Finally, Deidara jumped to the ceiling of the stomach ready to detonate the clay, as Tobi flew up, screaming.

"Not yet! Not yet! Not- BOOOM!!!" The toad flew apart in a gummy, slimy mess, spraying God knows what all over the two men-with Tobi slightly on fire-and dumping smoking toad parts all over the forest. Deidara franticly ran toward the spot where Tobi had left the girl, only to find her missing. He slammed his fist to the ground angrily. He lost the two biggest beasts to seal all in one day. He would never live this one down.

"Run it again..." Naruto groaned. His limbs were tired like never before. Jiraiya had been in a bad mood lately, and had been making him run his taijustu over and over and over...with a full body weight strapped on about 10 times heavier than him. If that wasn't bad, the sage made him run in the suit...He had to admit, it was getting near the point of Gai level training...

"Are you serious you grumpy old perv?! I've been at this for three days nonstop! I know my taijutsu needed work but come on!" The sage knocked back some sake and glared at his student.

"I thought you wanted to become hokage? Or did you think you would get that position sitting around hiding from the Akasuki?" Naruto growled and cursed the sage under his breath as he prepared himself for the next set of drills. Jiraiya uncorked a fresh bottle of sake and quickly drained half the bottle. He had not been in a good mood at all lately. He was on his last bottle of sake, and hadn't seen a woman in little over a month. He was also fresh out of ideas for the new 'Icha Icha' book he was working on. He sighed to himself.

"I guess I'll just have to leave it all to imagination..." He began working on an elaborate scene in his head, and was almost to the point of drooling when a new presence caught his attention. He carefully weighed the chakra in his mind and compared it. His eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Akasuki..." He threw a few things together in his pack and gathered it all together. "Naruto, take off the weights. We have some company...and you can bet they know we're here." Sure enough, with a little concentration, both could hear the two squabbling men. There was also another chakra that felt familiar to Jiraiya, but he couldn't quite place it. He turned to the struggling boy who was untying the weights from his body. "Stay here...and don't get involved or you'll be off to visit Pein and the rest of Akasuki quicker than you could blink." He threw a couple of seals together when he recognized the pair. He silently apologized to the toads for sacrificing one of them. But then again, from the torn guts would emerge new toads so they couldn't complain too much. Of course, with Gamabunta who knew?

Not long after he heard the gigantic toad emerge from below and swallow the two men. It wouldn't kill them, but it would subdue them long enough for Jiraiya to figure out why they were there and what they were originally after. He heard the two squirming anxiously and angrily in the toad's stomach.

"Better hurry up..." He was about to give up, as he couldn't find anything, until he noticed a few small drops of blood. Nothing major but enough to get him interested. He followed what little clue he had, and finally hit what appeared to be a girl. She had long white hair, and was covered in blood. He clothes were muddy and torn, obviously very old. She was knocked out cold, and although he couldn't see any visible cuts or wounds, she had to be hurt in some way, and if the Akasuki were after her, it definitely wasn't good. He picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. He darted away as quickly as he could back to where Naruto was. The boy was standing impatiently (big surprise) and staring off into space. The sage darted past him and shouted over his shoulder.

"Run!" Naruto nearly toppled over himself in surprise as the man passed him with surprising speed. He was hesitant at first, and then ran just as quickly after the old sage.

"Typical pervy sage just leave me-" But Naruto's word's were cut short as there was a thundering "BOOOM!!" heard throughout the entire forest. There was the stomach churning sound of flesh and other parts hitting the forest, as well as a sickening wet sound of some sort of disgusting slime.

"What the hell was that you old perv?!"

"Some men from Akasuki...They were after this girl and came across us instead. We have to relocate...get to a new forest, or a new town. Thankfully when they blew up that toad-" Naruto's eyebrows rose at this interesting bit, "It erased our scent and all our chakra so it'll be harder to find us." The younger processed this bit of information.

"So they went after that girl? What for? She doesn't look like anything more than an average person..." Jiraiya huffed.

"Never judge a person by appearance only...I thought you already knew that." Naruto raised his brows.

"Yeah, but come on, no headband, no weapons, nothing that would suggest she's a ninja..." Jiraiya just looked at his student.

"Really, I knew you weren't the most observant Shinobi of all time, but really..." Naruto growled threateningly. "Look at her Naruto, she's covered in someone's blood, hers or another person's we don't know yet. The Akasuki were after her for whatever reason, and we can bet she's important to them for whatever reason. They don't just target anybody after all." Naruto nodded a bit.

"I guess you're right...but then think of it this way, if the Akasuki are after her, how do we know she's safe? How do we know she's not dangerous to us?" Jiraiya smiled a bit.

"Finally, the intelligent part of you comes out for its annual visit...you're right I admit, but the enemy of my enemy is my friend...and besides, when a person is hurt they're on everyone's side."

"Must be the end of the world if both you and me are sounding smart for once..."

"All we need now is Gamabunta with wings and we're all set." Jiraiya joked lightly with his student. Naruto sniggered for a while with the thought of the huge toad with tiny white wings. The two then traveled in silence for about two hours. At this point, Naruto began to worry about the girl. She had been out for a while, and could've been suffering from blood loss.

"Hey pervy sage...when do you think she'll wake up?" The sage snapped his head up as if remembering something.

"Oh right! I should check her!" Naruto nearly fell over.

"You never thought that might be a good idea?!" The sage rubbed his neck in embarrassment.

"Well I was a little more preoccupied with getting away safely and I forgot we had a new group member..." The student shook his head. Sometimes he wondered how this man had become a legendary sannin...and trained the fourth hokage, the most powerful of all leaf shinobi. But then the man actually acted serious and reminded Naruto how it was possible.

They stopped in a small clearing in the forest, and the sage inspected it carefully. He seemed satisfied after a moment and set down his pack.

"This'll do for the night...start a fire." Naruto set down his pack and sighed with relaxation. This was probably the closest he had been to resting in a couple days. He grabbed a couple of sticks and twigs lying around and began to work on the fire as he was told. Jiraiya laid the girl down and stared at her. He stood up and made a couple of strange expressions, as if contemplating something. Naruto noticed this and laughed at the sage.

"What's wrong, afraid to touch for once in your life?" The man crossed his arms and huffed indignantly.

"This is different...She's obviously younger than me by far, and I don't violate girls while they're knocked out. I'm no pedophile perv..." Naruto rolled his eyes.

"Want help?" The man chuckled with amusement.

"You think I'm just going to fall for that trick? Please...You're a horny teenage boy, there's no way I'm letting you undress her." Naruto stumbled in surprise.

"First things first old man...You're the horny one in this group, and second, since when are we...undressing her?!" Jiraiya rolled his eyes.

"To do a proper exam I have to get her out of these clothes, plus you don't want her to get infected or to keep bleeding in a place we don't know about..." Naruto narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"I think you're just making excuses old man..." The sage just huffed, and continued to stare at the unconscious girl. Naruto rolled his eyes and walked over to the two.

"Why don't we both do it? That way we'll both keep an eye on each other and we won't feel guilty. How about it?" The man shrugged.

"Sounds at least a little better than what we were going to do...let's do it." The two stood still for a moment and stared at the girl, as if willing her to come back to consciousness. When that didn't work the two kneeled down and began to slowly work at the dirty, torn dress the girl wore. Luckily-or unluckily, depending how the two looked at it-the girl was covered quite well under the dress, so they didn't have to do anything drastic. Although there was blood and all sorts of tears on the dress previously worn, the girl was clean of cuts and wounds, only showing a few light bruises on her light skin. Jiraiya sat cross legged and stared off into space for a moment. Naruto waited somewhat patiently.

"Having more memory issues you old perv?" Jiraiya glared at the boy.

"I'm trying to remember the medical justus Tsunade taught me..." But all that could be imaged in the sage's head was the woman's large bust size and some rambling in the background. Naruto punched him when he saw the man start to drool.

"Focus you perv! She could be bleeding internally for all we know!"

"Fine fine fine..." The instructions finally came back to him (after more thoughts of Tsunade's breasts) and he threw some signs together making his hands glow green. He moved his hands over the girl slowly, examining her, making sure what he found was certain.

"Well, she isn't hurt too bad anywhere, her arm is a little fractured and she was hit in the back of the head. That's probably why she's been out for a while...those men hit a key nerve in the neck. We can bet she won't be up until early in the morning." Naruto nodded, with the usual sense of _trying_ to understand and getting the basic idea. If Sakura had been there she had probably rolled her eyes and explained it a bit more. But the sage could care less and continued the examination.

"Here, turn her over...We forgot to check her back." The two prepared to pick her up when the girl shot up, chest heaving and slapped both their hands away. She stumbled backwards, nearly falling. Her bright blue eyes darted over them, examining and evaluating their faces. She was breathing heavily and shaking slightly, as if fighting to stand straight.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Naruto scratched his head a bit.

"Hey pervy sage, I thought you said she was supposed to be out a little longer?" The man shrugged.

"I guess they didn't hit her as hard as I thought." '_But even so...there's no way she should be awake yet.' _The sage thought to himself, eyebrows only twitching a bit giving away slight emotion. The girl glared at the two.

"Answer me! Who are you and what do you want?" The sage huffed indignantly.

"I think we're the one's who should be asking questions...after all, we found you unconscious after the Akasuki had been chasing you and probably saved your life. You owe us some thanks."

"I never asked you to save me. You don't know me and I don't know you. You could've just left me to be taken. In fact, how do I know you didn't take me from the Akasuki for your own purposes?" She gazed at them with harsh eyes, legs shaking beneath her. Naruto stood up with a defensive pose.

"Hey lady, we saved your ass! We didn't take you for any other reason than we thought you were hurt, and we brought you here with us and took care of you! You could be an enemy for all _we_ know. You should be thanking us!" The girl took a step back and growled. Jiraiya's eyes narrowed.

"Both of you stop it. Naruto," he swept the boy's legs from under him, causing him to face plant into the ground. "Sit down and shut up. Stop pointing fingers at each other. Right now, neither of us are enemies as far as we know. Let's just get a few things straight." The girl locked eyes with him and he saw her legs shaking fiercely beneath her. Whether in fear, or exhaustion he wasn't sure.

"Take a seat. You're about to shake yourself to pieces..." The girl glared a while longer and hesitantly took a spot on the ground, about fifteen feet away from the two shinobi.

"Firstly, who are you?"

"My name is Inari..." the sage waited for more, but obviously it was all the girl was going to give him.

"Pleased to meet you. I am the great toad sage Jiraiya!" The man took his usual pose, showing off and twirling his hair around. "Oh, and this Is Naruto..." He pointed dulling at the boy sitting on the ground. The boy crossed his arms indignantly.

"Future hokage you old perv! And don't you forget it!" The sage ignored him and continued.

"We're leaf shinobi from Konoha, if you hadn't already guessed. We have no affiliation with Akasuki and have no aims to capture you." The girl watched them a second longer and smirked a bit.

"Well, now I recognize you a bit...the Sannin Jiraiya. And apparently future hokage...Honored." It was said with some sarcasm, making Naruto's blood boil. Jiraiya continued before his student could cause another outburst between the two teens.

"So tell me now, why were the Akasuki after you?" The girl looked away and shrugged.

"I'm not sure. Apparently I offended them or caused them some anger. All I know is I was minding my own business and suddenly I was running away from two men." Naruto finally butted in.

"There's no way that's true! The Akasuki don't just go after anyone for no reason!" The girl just glared back at him.

"Well apparently they do." Jiraiya watched her carefully. Naruto was right, she was lying. He could see it in her body language. But there was no way they would get the truth out of her now. They would just have to trust her for a bit, and watch her. Because if the Akasuki was after her, You could bet it wasn't good.

The girl's breath had slowed slightly, but she was still heaving and shaking, which lead Jiraiya to believe it wasn't the cause of fear.

"Are you alright?" She shook her head and waved a hand.

"I'll be fine, they just hit me with a minor poison. Nothing serious. It'll be out of my system in a while." The sage raised a brow.

"In my experience, it's best to get the poison out of your system, not let it run it's course and kill you." She laughed.

"They had no intention of killing me...It'll just make me a little queasy for a while. I'll be fine." She took in a breath. "Now, can you tell me what you did with my clothes before I catch a cold?" The sage rubbed the back of his neck.

"Well...I don't think you'll be able to wear them anymore..." He showed her the cut up pieces of cloth and she sighed.

"Well, nothing major at least. Do you have anything for me to borrow?" The sage giggled and gave her the thumbs up.

"You betcha I do!" Not long after several articles of clothing came flying out of his pack, and he finally came up with a small white kimono.

"Here you go...I uh, borrowed this from a young lady I met in town a while ago!" Inari raised a brow and took the Kimono. It was a bit skimpy for her taste but she pulled it over her head. Thankfully, it fit her well and gave her room to move around. She thanked the man and sat down by the small fire Naruto had made. The boy was now eyeing the girl angrily. He knew absolutely nothing about her, and she was apparently joining the group for a while. He could see the sage's plan to keep her, even though he hadn't said anything. She could be an enemy for all they knew, and the pervy old fart was accepting her with open arms! He took a sharp stick and doodled in the ground. They had better things to do than worry about another person in their group...It would be much more difficult now that they had someone new.

He heard the girl pardon herself briefly and turn around to walk off into another part of the woods. He looked up an saw there was an opening on the Kimono, showing an odd shaped mark on her back.

"What's that mark on your back?" The girl whirled around, eyes wide. She felt around on her back and discovered the opening the dress was designed with. She hissed under her breath.

"It's nothing...just a birthmark." She turned around and hurried off. Naruto watched here suspiciously and then turned back to his doodling. The sage looked at him.

"What mark are you talking about?" Naruto looked up, about to comment how he could miss the dark, large mark on her back, when he noticed the man working on his pervy novels. He sighed.

"She has a mark on her back, shaped like a tail." He outlined it with his fingers to show the man. Jiraiya snorted.

"What do you care? You're the one with whiskers..." Naruto just launched a rock at the man in response. From there, became a dirt/rock war of sorts, until Inari returned. She came back only to find rocks littering the clearing, some stuck in trees, some completely lodged in the ground, and two men with bruises. The two were curled up in their makeshift beds, just about asleep. The sage was still scribbling in his book, and Naruto was inspecting some of his bruises. Inari shook her head.

"Does this happen often? I'd rather not be around when rocks go flying fast enough to indent themselves in trees..." She looked at a pebble that had made it's way halfway through the tree. The two just shrugged. Naruto was watching the Kyuubi's healing powers at work as the bruises quickly faded away, and disappeared from sight. He was about to lay down to sleep when he caught a whiff of some chakra. It wasn't the sage's or his, but it was a familiar chakra. One that he had smelled quite often in his childhood...He turned to Inari who was climbing a tree.

"What village do you come from?" She whipped her head around in interest.

"I don't come from a village. I've lived my whole live in the forest..." Naruto cocked his head as she laid comfortably on a branch.

"Have you ever been to the leaf village?" She paused, and closed her eyes.

"...Once or twice yes."

"Have we met before?" She opened her eyes, he electric blue tingling in the dark.

"Why do you ask?" Naruto shrugged and fell back to the ground.

"You're chakra...just seems familiar for some reason."

"I'm not a Shinobi, I don't have access to my chakra..."

"That's a pretty lame excuse."

"I've never met you before in my life. I've been to the leaf village once or twice and have never come across you." He looked over to see the electric blue eyes burning, as if they were trying to make him believe what she was saying. He huffed and turned over. She could say it all she wanted, but he knew...he had felt that chakra before.

Author's note!

Alright, first let's get a few things straight before we get any questions running...I kept Naruto in the forest a little longer than he is in canon. Just about one year...So he's sixteen, and just about done with his time in the forest. Inari is...sixteen right now lol we'll get into the 'technical' stuff later. Why does Jiraiya have women's clothing? Because he's a man whore and a creeper and steals clothes lol either that or the poor woman dashed away from him before she could get her clothes back on. Or something of that sort...I'll leave it up to imagination lol Ummm I really can't think of much to say in this note....But basically that's where the plot takes place right now. In between Parts 1 and 2 when Naruto goes off to train with Jiraiya. If you guys have anymore questions just put it in a review lol Oh, and if my character is even a LITTLE mary sue, do tell lol Even if it's a flame, go ahead

Please please review! They're very lovely food for authors like me...lol we enjoy them much!


	3. Memories

Chapter Two:

_Naruto padded softly up to his new home. He ignored the looks he got from a few people in the halls of the building. He was used to it, after all. However, he wasn't sure how to feel about the new place. It was nicer than anything he had ever lived in by far, but only 6 and on your own was difficult. Also, as overjoyed as he was by not having to share a room with a hundred other orphans who wouldn't talk to him, and no longer having to be glared at by the angry eyes of the workers at the orphanage, the fact was, he had been kicked out. He had never before heard of anyone being kicked out of the orphanage, the last resort of the place for kids who nobody wanted, and they didn't even want him there. The hokage had promised he would be taken care of, food, rent, and what not, but he knew only to a certain extent. That was already evident by the shape of the building. _

_He arrived at his room number, and shoved the door with all his might (which wasn't much at that point) making the door scrape open. The apartment had an old, musty smell to it, but at least had no visible creatures or mold in sight, so that made things better. And the best part was, he was on the top floor, with a big window and a deck for him to go out on. He walked around a bit more and caught a hint of a light, flowery scent in the room. It covered the smell of the musty apartment, which was nice, and he enjoyed it as he looked at the old bed in the corner of the room. And then, upon further inspection of the bed, he found the surprise of his young life. _

_There were a bundle of new clothes on the moth eaten mattress, socks and all, along with two pairs of shoes. He dropped what little possessions he had in his arms and ran over to the clothes with his mouth open in awe. These were the only new clothes he had ever, seen in his life. He picked them up carefully, like a treasure of some sort, and felt the soft, new feel of the material in his hands. He was incredibly sure it wasn't the hokage who had done this, but then, who else would do it? He pondered for a second before seeing a small note next to the shoes._

_'Look in the kitchen'_

_Although a simple note, Naruto barely was able to read it, and identified the message after a while, streaking his way into the kitchen. All of the cabinets where open, revealing hundreds of boxes of Ramen. Not only that, there was Ramen on the counters, and piled on the stove. And when he looked in the fridge, there were even a small variety of fruits and vegetables that were easy for him to eat. He danced around the kitchen screaming at the top of his lungs like any other 6 year old filled with delight. Ramen, was his favorite food in the whole, entire, world, and he had only had it once or twice as part of a special occasion, or at a festival given to him out of pity from the old man who worked at Ichiraku's. Plus, before this, he had a very small, very limited food supply at the orphanage (partly because they had a limited amount of food there, and partly because he was hated) and now, he could eat like a king. _

_In the midst of his celebration however, he heard a small flap of wind from the window, startling him a bit. He turned around to see a girl with long hair, and the mask of an ANBU fox. She had on a small white jumpsuit, rather than the typical uniform of an ANBU opps. member, clearly showing she was not a true member. Her hair made a light flapping noise, and also leaked in a bit more of the flowery smell he recognized earlier. They both just stared at each other, at a standpoint. Neither spoke, neither moved. The red fox eyes of the ANBU mask just stared at him, until he tried to get just a hair closer, and she fled out the window. He sprinted to the deck and hollered after her. _

_"Thank you!" He had no proof it was her who had given him the gifts, but then, who else could it be, and why would she be there? She stopped about two buildings over, and stood still, not even turning around. It was like his voice had had an effect on her, as if she was begging to hear more. _

_She stood a second longer, before he saw a teardrop glitter in the sunlight, and she disappeared. _

Naruto sat up quickly, blinking the sleep from his eyes. He was awoken by the harsh sound of someone vomiting not too far off from the clearing. There was some coughing and hacking afterward, and a little more sound of vomiting. It make Naruto's stomach churn slightly, before he got up and walked over to the source. The girl from before was bent over in some bushes, still coughing sharply, holding herself steady against a tree with one hand, and holding her hair back with the other. She breathed heavily for a while and coughed a bit more.

"Are you gonna be ok?" She whirled around with small shock in her eyes. She cleared her throat and stood up weakly.

"Yes...I'll be fine, it's just the poison clearing itself out..." A small grunt was heard, as they both caught sight of Jiraiya leaning up against a tree with a slightly disapproving look in his eyes.

"I told you you shouldn't have let it take it's course. I could've make an antidote for you, and you wouldn't be losing your breakfast before you swallowed it." She shook her head and walked back to the clearing, steadying herself against a tree every few feet.

"Antidotes don't work well with me very often." Jiraiya raised his brow a bit, but said nothing as he and Naruto followed her. Naruto still swayed with exhaustion as he smelled the breakfast the sage was cooking on the fire. Simple fried rice, but it smelled extremely good. Inari sat down on a nearby rock and watched Jiraiya stir the rice with care and take it off the fire. He looked at her and spoke,

"You think you'll be able to eat?" She shook her head with some sadness.

"No thank you. I don't think my stomach will be able to handle anything until the middle of the day or so..." The sage shrugged and offered some to Naruto, who almost took the entire dish, had it not been for Jiraiya's rapid response, which was a quick swat of the hand, and a yank back of the rice.

They ate in silence for a while, until Jiraiya spoke to Inari yet again,

"So where are you traveling, If I may ask?" She shrugged with a small smile.

"Nowhere specific really. I mostly stay in the forest if I can, and then I'll visit small towns when I need clothes, or food, or something of the sort. What about you two?" Her eyes flickered to Naruto, and back to the sage.

"Nowhere right now, we're mostly just training in the forest." He said, not missing the glance to Naruto. "We're like you right now I suppose, we only visit town when necessary." She laughed a bit.

"Maybe we should partner up since we're so alike in our traveling. Why may I ask are you so far from the leaf village?" Jiraiya shrugged with a small grin.

"Just training the untrainable mostly." There was another small silence as the two men scarfed down the rest of their food, and Inari began to nod off to a small sleep, trying to snap herself out of it every other second. The sage shook his head.

"You can sleep if you want, We're just going to train, and we'll be in this area, so you're safe." And without even acknowledging the two, she sunk down and fell asleep. Jiraiya examined her features.

"I sure do feel like I've seen her before..." Naruto snapped his head up from his plateful of rice.

"Hey, you know I do too. I thought it was just me..." Jiraiya shook his head and watched her sleep.

"I know I've seen her somewhere...and her chakra...I've felt it before." He leant in a bit closer to examine her features, when her eyes snapped wide open, revealing the bright blue iris underneath.

"Can I help you?" She spoke in a calm voice, that was at the same time crackling with threat. Jiraiya grinned at her.

"Just making sure you'll be alright! Can't have you throwing up all day." He giggled pathetically and grabbed Naruto swiftly-who gave a cry of indignance- as he headed to the other side of the clearing. When they finally reached their destination, Jiraiya threw his pupil on the ground, along with a large bag.

"Put on the suit again and resume from yesterday." Naruto growled as he patted himself free of the dust.

"I suppose while you laze around and drink you're sake?" the sage just grinned and uncorked the bottle of liquor. Naruto sighed and began putting on the large suit, that started out extremely lightweight, as if it was just a puffy coat. Until of course, Jiraiya activated the seals. Then, it weight a ton. Naruto honestly had to admit, he hated the suit. With a passion.

In the meanwhile, Jiraiya sat on the ground holding his bottle of sake staring off into space. He was positive he had seen that girl before somewhere...And the senses she gave off, definitely far too in-tune for a regular person. And then there was the Akasuki after her...Why would they go after a regular girl? And how did she manage to get away from them long enough to make it a good chase for them? This was definitely something he needed to observe. Something the leaf village should be aware of incase it meant danger for them. Or on the up side, they may have made a good ally.

But then again...there was one last thing bothering the sage. She had a bit of a...wild side to her. As if she hadn't been in society for ages. She had a quick dart to her eyes, slight paranoia, and her movements were almost animal-like. Whether or not she was used to human company was yet to be established, but it was like keeping a wolf as a pet. You never knew when they would lash out and hurt someone. He looked over to see her observing Naruto's training, calm, but with an odd look in her eyes. Jiraiya couldn't place it, but it made him uncomfortable. She was merely observing, but it was more than that, she was processing and calculating.

He watched her stand up shakily and walk over, carefully padding the ground, and sit down next to the sage. She turned her head slightly, just barely looking at him.

"So tell me, how is the leaf village?" Jiraiya shrugged.

"Not sure, we've been away for almost three years now, but when we left it was doing pretty good...mostly safe, peaceful, and busy as usual." She nodded in thought. "And how is the third? He's very aged now, I hope he finally retired...he was too stubborn to quit last I saw him." Jiraiya's eyes narrowed slightly.

"He was killed in battle about four years ago against Orochimaru. Tsunade is the new Hokage, and she's doing pretty good so far from what I hear..." He saw Inari's eyebrows raise slightly.

"I'm very sorry to hear he is dead...He was a good man, very kind and full of joy almost all of the time." The sage nodded slowly, remembering his sensei.

"He loved that village." She faced him, her blue eyes locking on his.

"All hokage do." Jiraiya looked at her, trying to analyze her emotions, trying to see what she was being ever so discreet about. Trying to uncode the secret beneath the words.

"When was the last time you visited Konoha?" She turned back around, so he could only see some of her face yet again.

"Quite some time ago I suppose, I'm not entirely sure how long ago it was..." Jiraiya found a hole in her story.

"You must have been very young, why exactly were you traveling on your own to the leaf village?" She shrugged.

"I wasn't all that young...just visiting people in the village and getting updates on what I missed over the years." Jiraiya resisted a smirk. He had found the wound in her story. She was walking all around her answers, trying to change the topic. This could help him determine just who and what she was. But before he was able to prod at it any longer, she stood up and walked over back into some shade and took a new seat under there. He tried yet again to get a good look at her face, only to see her cover her face with a thick curtain of hair as she shut her eyes and rested underneath the trees. He sighed and uncorked his sake, downing a big swallow.

He looked back over at his pupil to see him huffing and puffing, struggling to run the last few sets of motions, and sweating like a hog. But as usual he kept his determined look on his face and pushed onward. Finally, as he finished the last few sets, Jiraiya released the seals, watching as Naruto flung off the suit and went leaping into the trees. It was his favorite part about getting the suit off. The freedom, the strength, and the speed. And no matter how tired the boy got, he would go leaping into the trees and through the forest.

He saw Inari watch in amusement as he leapt around with freedom and happiness, before getting back up and walking back to the original camp. She pulled out an apple from her sleeve (one she had found earlier, Jiraiya assumed) and began to eat a bit of it. Finally, Naruto came back to sit down as well, and then fall onto his back, lying on the ground. Jiraiya took another swig from his sake and looked at the boy.

"Don't get too comfortable, You're going to be practicing your Rasengan after this." As he said the last of his sentence, he saw Inari's head snap up and look at Naruto.

"You can imitate the Fourth's Rasengan?" Naruto glared at her.

"Not just Imitate! Duplicate." She raised her eyebrows in disbelief. The sage turned to her.

"So you've heard of the fourth's Rasengan before?" She snorted.

"Who hasn't?" The man had to admit, she was right. She then turned back to Naruto.

"So, can you 'duplicate' his speed as well?" Naruto looked away and crossed his arms. The sage chuckled.

"He's tried once or twice and always ends up somewhere completely different than where he's supposed to be. It's a little dangerous for him. But it's certainly something to work on..." Naruto whipped his head to look at the sage.

"It wasn't that bad!" Jiraiya rolled his eyes.

"Your second try you ended up twenty miles from your destination, at the top of a tree even." Naruto huffed angrily. For the first time, they both heard a genuine laugh come from Inari.

"You're definitely his son..." She giggled to herself, before being suddenly grabbed and two inches away from a very intent, very focused Naruto.

"What did you say?" He breathed, barely able to be heard. He saw goose-bumps appear on her skin, and she stared at him.

"What do you mean?" She wrinkled her brow just a bit. He held onto her just a bit tighter.

"My father...how do you know...who is he?" He had a maniacal look in his eyes, like he was prepared to do anything to get his answer. She was speechless, her eyes wide on her face. Finally, Jiraiya grabbed Naruto and pulled him off of her. He tried to push himself off of the sage and get back over to Inari who was still in a state of shock.

"Go over there and start on your Rasengan. Now." Naruto pushed a bit more until he felt a little shock run up his body. A warning spike of chakra from the sannin who was glaring down at him. It was a threat at this point. The sage meant business if he ever gave a warning spike, meaning if Naruto didn't back down and do as he was told, there would be hell to pay. And after a few seconds of cold silence, Naruto turned on his heel and walked back over to a group of trees. The sage watched him go over and turned his attention to the girl in front of him.

"What did you say?" He looked deeply into her eyes for an explanation.

"Nothing...Nothing important." She turned away and began walking toward the forest. "I'm...going to go for a small walk." Before entering the woods, she turned back to the sage, and gave him what he swore was a death glare. The sage just stood there with a bewildered look on his face. What exactly just happened?


	4. Arguing

Chapter Three: Arguing

Jiraiya sighed and sat back down on the large boulder in the field. Teenagers were so incredibly annoying...he had almost forgotten how bad it was with his last group...He shuddered at the thoughts. It made his head ache when he remembered all the confusing love triangles and drama. One of the biggest down sides of being a sensei in his opinion.

Upon turning his attention back to Naruto, he found the boy abusing a tree with his Rasengan angrily. The whirl of wind whipped leaves everywhere, and wood chips went flying off into the woods as the teen fumed. The sage watched silently until he saw the boy start to turn up the intensity of the Rasengan. He shoved it harder into the tree, only to have it recoil and throw his arm backward. And with determination and anger, Naruto shoved it back at the tree stubbornly. Jiraiya raised his voice.

"You know, if you keep doing that you're going to cause an exp-" The man was suddenly cut off as the tree exploded with the rasengan sending Naruto flying backward and wood splinters everywhere. The sage brushed the various pieces of wood off of him and shook his head. "You knew that was going to happen, you pushed it too far and you had no control." Naruto stood up and huffed angrily. "Yeah yeah..." The two looked up as they heard the soft pat of feet on the ground. Inari ran into the field, her eyes alert and her dress awkwardly put on.

"What happened?" She turned to Jiraiya who just pointed at Naruto.

"He's the one you want, he misused the Rasengan and ended up blowing up a tree." She looked over at him and raised a brow. Naruto looked away with embarrassment and anger. At this point he was going over what he thought she said...Something about his father. But going over her reaction, he was second guessing and thought he may have misheard her...and ended up frightening her over something silly. But if what he though he heard was true...then he may have a link to his family. However, he guessed both Tsunade and Jiraiya knew who they were. He had just never had the guts to ask either. He had a suspicion it wouldn't end well if he dared to ask. And that was saying something, considering not much stopped Naruto when it came to guts. Jiraiya meanwhile looked at the girl's clothes suspiciously.

"What were you up to?" She smoothed out the creases on her dress consciously.

"I was about to clean up, when I heard your...explosion. I threw on my clothes as quick as possible." She looked away with slight embarrassment on her face and walked over the the campsite. As she walked away both the sage and Naruto eyed the mark on her back yet again. Something in Jiraiya's mind sparked a bit, as if it wanted to resurrect a long lost memory, but nothing came to him right away. All that immediately came up was some sort of assignment when Minato was an ANBU member. Which meant absolutely nothing to him at that point. The sage shrugged his shoulders and looked around for his sake.

Naruto walked back to the campfire and began to take out his lunch. He had a few packs of ramen in his bag that were special reserves for when he needed a serious pick-me-up. He decided (happily) it was one of those days. He began to prepare the ramen excitedly and munched on an apple while the water began to boil. At this point Naruto noticed Inari sitting on a small rock across from him, watching him carefully. He looked away quickly. He wasn't big on apologies, pretty much anyone who knew him knew this. He would let the tension settle and that would be it. No awkward discussion, and the argument ended up resolved. Luckily, the girl hadn't tried to apologize, nor did she seem to demand an apology as Sakura would have. He sighed with relief in his mind. Thank God she hadn't demanded an apology like Sakura. He always seemed to make her more angry when he tried.

He looked back at her and she was still eyeing him carefully, her head now cocked slightly. He could hear the sage's drunken snores in the background of the awkward silence. He raised a brow and she met him in the eyes.

"Do you want any food?" She shook her head with a grim smile.

"No thanks, I'm still trying to clear the poison from my body, it would only make me sick." He squinted his eyes.

"I've never heard of that happening to anyone, that's pretty kool!" He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. She shrugged her shoulders.

"Just the poison they gave me..." She looked away turning her attention to the ground. He doubted her answer was correct, but what did he know? He wasn't as good with poisons as Sakura was in the end. Naruto noticed the water for his ramen was finally boiling and he started to make his ramen with gusto. When it was finally done he completely lost himself as he ate his food happily, and enjoyed the unique taste of ramen that he could never tire of. When he finished he looked up at Inari who was dragging her finger in the dirt absentmindedly. He cleared his throat.

"So are you around shinobi very often?" She looked at him with her bright blue eyes, as if they bore into his mind.

"I used to be, quite often actually. Now I spend most of my time in the forest on my own." He watched her face, trying to read her. Something he didn't often do-he wasn't very good at it most of the time-but something he occasionally tried.

"Did you ever try being a shinobi?" She had a far away look in her eyes as she tilted her head up and looked at the cloudy grey sky.

"Once, yes. It didn't suit me though...The life of a killer in the shadows, supposed to be disciplined and swift...it just wasn't what I wanted. I don't go after power." He frowned.

"There's more to it than that you know, It's protecting the ones you love, and keeping peace." She snorted and focused her attention back to him with a steely gaze.

"Yes, fantastic job on that, there's only several shinobi wars and battles going on as we speak...So your peace plan is magnificent. Second...protecting the ones you love...It's difficult to do, and in the end you lose more than you bargained for. It's better not to love, and to keep a level head." Naruto looked on her with a sad, and pitying gaze.

"You don't believe that...do you?" She looked him straight in the eyes, a somber look on her face.

"Yes...I really do." She whispered softly and looked away. He growled and looked away as well.

"Look, I don't know where you came from, or what convinced you that, but without people to love...you fall into a black hole of hell. And protecting them is just one step of that. And second, since when is it foolish to want peace and serenity in the world? We all want is to stop death and war, and yeah we're probably not going to stop it all the way, but we can at least try to." She was silent for a long time, and Naruto finally stood up, and she spoke to him.

"When you understand what I tell you, and experience what I have, then I can listen to your words. But for now, they are empty words of hope out of a boy who hasn't experienced certain things yet." he whipped around and glared at her.

"And when you figure out that love can only help you and not hurt you, let me know. Then I might take some of _your_ 'advice'" He turned his head and made his way back over to the now awakened sannin who had observed the entire conversation. He looked at the man, who said nothing, and he went right back into his training. He turned his attention to Inari, who caught his eye, and smoothly turned her head away, hiding behind a curtain of white hair. He sighed and walked over to her. He watched her for a second, while she ignored him, keeping her gaze on the ground.

"You know, this journey might be a whole lot easier if you two would stop pissing each other off." She snorted.

"Sorry Master Jiraiya, but I just can't get along with him." He gave a short laugh.

"Have you even tried yet? As far as I can tell you've been working your ass off just to make him mad." She gave a soft bark.

"Maybe I have..." He shook his head.

"Like I said, It's going to be a whole lot easier if you try to get along." She kept quiet for a while and finally slapped her hand on the ground giving a cry of anger.

"Will you _please_ tell him to get that last stance right?! If he gets any more open on that position he may as well stab himself and just save his opponent the trouble." Jiraiya looked up, and sure enough Naruto did fine on the sequence up until the last stance. He sighed and picked up a large rock, throwing it at the boy's head, which hit with a solid 'Thud'. The boy looked over angrily, ready to charge the man.

"Get your arm down on that last stance, You're wide open..." The boy growled under his breath and fixed his posture, continuing his training. Jiraiya turned back to continue talking to Inari, but he looked back and she was gone. With further inspection, he found she was at the top of one of the trees, spread out over a limb, looking at the sky. He closed his eyes and pinched his nose. Teens were _extremely_ aggrivating sometimes.

He then opened his eyes, just as a large drop of rain came down and splatted right on the bridge of his nose. He raised a brow, and suddenly it started to pour. He heard a large protest beggining to come from his student, who very much hated the rain. Jiraiya rolled his eyes and looked over at the furious student.

"Keep going, you can stop in a while..." He took a swig of his sake and strolled under the cover of one of the larger trees. He looked up at his hair sadly. All of its perfect spikes and ridges, ruined. He mourned quietly before sighing. At least there were no women in miles to see his messed up hair. Which, in truth depressed him further. He sat underneath the tree, quietly pouting, until he heard his student shouting, yet again. He raised his brow in amusement as the boy shook his fist angrily up at one of the trees. He looked up, and remembered Inari was laying up there, now soaking up the rain peacefully. He shook his head and decided to watch the next argument unfold.

"Hey! Heeeey! Get down from there!" He shook his fist up at her, yelling to get her attention. He however got no response and continued to yell. "Get down from there! The rain is starting to get colder, you're gonna get sick!" He waited a few moments longer, still not getting any response. He growled angrily and began to jump from limb to limb, climbing higher up the tree, until he finally reached her. "Hey! Didn't you hear me?! You're gonna get sick if you stay out here any longer!" She kept her eyes closed, and stayed relaxed on the tree.

"I heard you. And I wont get sick, I'll be fine. A little rain never killed anyone." He growled yet again.

"It's getting colder, you're gonna freeze up here." She snorted.

"I don't see you trying to get out of the rain, why should I?"

"Because I don't sick very easily, and even if I do I heal quick." She opened her eyes and gave him a look of indifference.

"I don't get sick easily either, and I'm enjoying the rain, so leave me alone." She closed her eyes and continued to let the rain pour down on her. At this point the wind began to pick up, and Naruto was fuming. Finally, after she treaded on his last nerve, he picked her up swiftly and began to climb slowly down the tree. As he picked her up, he saw her eyes shoot open with terror and she clung onto him with a death grip.

"Put me down!" Her voice cracked with fear and anxiety. It was the most emotion he had heard out of her besides the first day they had rescued her. It made him want to laugh, he rarely ever got to torment Sakura like this, and he couldn't even imagine the toad sage ever panicking. It was the most fun he had had in a long while. "Put me down! I don't care about the rain I'll be fine! Put me down!" He laughed a bit more before replying to her.

"Sorry, but you need to get out of the rain and you won't do it voluntary. Maybe you don't care but I do." He felt her grip his jacket tighter.

"What do you care? You hardly know me." He stopped on a limb and looked her dead in the face.

"Just because I don't know you doesn't mean I shouldn't care. You're a living, breathing person. There's no reason why I shouldn't take care of you." She fell silent and he resumed his slow descent back down the tree. When they got to the ground, Naruto looked up and saw that the rain had now began to turn into snow. He shivered a bit at the cold and walked over to Jiraiya's newly picked spot in a cave, where he was busy putting together a fire. He got halfway there when Inari loosened her grip on him and looked at him.

"I think I can walk from here. You said the rain could make me sick, not paralyzed." He looked at her questioningly and gave an "Oh!" Of realization and set her down. They both got into the cave and sat on the dusty ground, which was thankfully slightly warmed due to the fire Jiraiya now had going. Naruto began taking off his jacket and shirt to lay by the fire, while Inari sat down toward the back of the cave, curling up and keeping to herself. Jiraiya walked over to Naruto and smiled.

"And all this time, I thought you had slept through all my lectures." Naruto rubbed the back of his neck with embarrasment.

"I guess my memory can kick in when I really need it." Jiraiya snorted and resumed his spot. Naruto looked over at Inari who was slightly shivering, and curled up into a ball.

"Inari, do you need to come closer to the fire? You're kinda soaked...You need to get dry." She raised her brow.

"I don't think I have the luxury of taking my clothes off, but thanks anyway." He rolled his eyes and blushed slightly. He looked over at Jiraiya, who was currently scribbling in his next Icha Icha book.

" I was just asking you if you wanted to get closer to the fire." She rolled her eyes back and scooted closer to the fire. She warmed up, but Naruto noticed she was still curled up slightly. He contemplated what to do. He briefly recalled Sakura mentioning body heat as an alternative source. He shrugged his shoulders. He scooted closer to Inari-without thinking of course- and wrapped his arm around her. She was silent for a long time, before slapping his hand off her shoulder and shoving him away.

"What'd I do?!" Naruto yelled indignantly. Inari huffed and crossed her arms.

"Sorry _stud, _now's not the time to make a move. Keep. Your. Distance. Or next time I'll break your arm off." She glared at him and spoke in a deadly tone. Naruto spluttered.

"I was trying to keep you warm!"

"Oh save it! You're nothing but a horny guy!" Naruto was at a loss for words, and then prepared to make his next outburst, when Jiraiya inturupted them both.

"Shut up! Both of you! Go to sleep, or do something with your time that DOESN'T involve killing each other!" Naruto grumbled under his breath and turned away to watch the snow fall. After a while of watching the snow fall gently to the earth, he was calm and turned back to see both Jiraiya and Inari were fast asleep. He rolled his eyes. It was barely the afternoon, and they were fast asleep. He sighed, took out his rusted weapons, and began to clean them. He looked back outside and thought to himself. It was going to be a loooong six months.


	5. Hope Comes from the darkness

Chapter Four: Hope comes from the Darkness

AU: Soooooo sorry for not updating since like FOREVER!!! Finally i've got a break and I have some time to write! Hopefully my skills are getting better, and you DON'T kill me Hehehe...

When Naruto woke up, he was surprised to find it was still raining, as well as pitch black. He groaned and rubbed his head. It was far too early to be awake. He looked to his right to find that Jiraiya was also beginning to stir. He sat up carefully, and jumped when there was the sharp rumble of thunder, along with the bright flashes of lightening. He looked to the entrance of the cave, where he saw a small shadow of a person. He cautiously reached to his shuriken, until he saw Inari lit up by the bright flashes of light. He gave a sigh of relief, and she snapped her head toward him.

"Good...your both awake. We need to get moving, quick." She whispered softly and quickly, her tone very troubled. Naruto looked to see the sage softly make his way to the entrance where she was crouching.

"What makes you say that?" She merely put a finger to her lips and motioned for him to listen. Naruto watched as the man's eyes slowly narrowed. "I see." Confused, Naruto activated his own sharp, fox-like hearing. What he heard, wasn't good.

Deidara ran amongst the trees, following the strong trail chakra that leaked from the girl. For whatever reason, she was leaking abnormal amounts of it, and not bothering to cover it up. Odd, because she knew she was being tracked...she knew who they were, and what they wanted. In the back of his mind, Deidara wondered if it was a trap of some sort. Although he was weary of the fact, he ignored it. He was absolutely not going to miss this opportunity.

Meanwhile, Tobi ran lightly across the ground, staying surprisingly quiet. Every now and then for good measure however, he would hum a tune and skip rather than run. Deidara only rolled his eyes and focused on the trail. He was only hoping the old sage wouldn't be anywhere in sight this time. If she was anything like he expected, she would most likely be alone. Sadly, he didn't think this was the case. As much as he liked a good fight, he didn't want to mess with the old sage. He paused for a moment and jumped on the ground where Tobi gleefully ran into him.

"Ow! Why are we stopping Senpai?" The elder akasuki member glared at him.

"I need to know if she's alone, or if she's with anyone else. And if she's still injured...that way I can know where we stand." He sifted carefully through the various scents in the wind, and amongst the ground. He couldn't find anything, but the man was an experienced Shinobi after all, he couldn't expect him to make a rookie mistake. He slapped the mud angrily and began to follow the trail again. Tobi trailed behind him humming yet again. He growled to himself.

"Tobi, if you don't shut up I swear..." He heard a light, "Aw..." behind him, but the humming ceased and He was focused yet again on the trail. He grinned with excitement when he reached the small clearing. She was definetaly here. There was wreckage all around in the trees and on the ground, and the air was thick with her chakra. He sniffed in the high energy and held in his excitement with difficulty. When the others saw what he had found...There would be no telling the reward he would get! But then again...he laughed to himself. Why share this with the others at all? If he could learn to control her, he would be the most feared shinobi of all time. Yes...if he could achieve it, there would be no telling what he could do! With her power, he could wipe out all nine of the other tailed beasts at once! He chuckled deeply and gave a feral smile. She had officially become his prey.

"I don't like this." Jiraiya muttered. They could all hear the Akasuki members getting nearer and nearer with each breath. Naruto could hear his heart pounding with excitement and adrenaline. His hands began to shake on the Kunai he held. He swallowed hard, feeling his newly prominent adams apple bob. He looked over to Inari. She was still in the same exact position, her eyes glaring out into the rain. It was as if she was waiting for them to come. As if she were as excited for the fight as Naruto. He didn't think it was possible, no one could get so worked up for a fight like he could. Jiraiya had often commented on it, a tone of amusement in his voice. The sage suddenly stood up, and caught both of the teens' attention.

"We need to get out of here...neither of you need to be involved in this, and we need to get as far from them as possible..." Inari shook her head.

"That won't be possible...they have a good trail." Jiraiya closed his eyes and swore sharply.

"Why the hell didn't you mention earlier you were leaking so much damn chakra?!" She turned away and hung her head with shame.

"It...didn't catch my attention. I always leak this much chakra, I had forgot about it...I haven't been tracked down like this in quite some time. And if I hold in chakra...It can be hazardous." Jiraiya slammed his fist on the ground. He growled lightly and took in a breath.

"Can you hold it in long enough for us to get away?" She shrugged uncomfortably and then took a high posture, holding her self with pride.

"Yes...however this is my problem, and I want to fix it rather than just wait for them to show up next time. I won't run." The sage turned to glare at her.

"You're a fool. You have no idea about their power! They caught you last time, what makes you think this time will be any different?!" She chuckled darkly.

"I can guarantee it..." Jiraiya shook his head.

"Fool...you're marching off to you're own death!"

"I doubt it...Look, let me fight them. I can guarantee there will be a better outcome for all of us...And I owe it to you to keep you safe..." The sage looked at her for a long while.

"You don't owe us anything." She smiled sadly.

"Actually...I owe you quite a lot." She stood up, rolling her neck. "I won't be long..." A shiver of excitement went down her spine and she dashed out the door with uncanny shinobi-like speed. Jiraiya pulled back when the wave of chakra hit him. It was like a wrecking ball. Thick, heavy, and sweet smelling, with a killer intent. It made the neck on the back of his neck stand up and bristle. The very feel of it gave him a shiver down his spine.

Naruto felt the wave and hissed through his teeth. He had only felt a few chakra's like it. None of them had belonged to an ally. He gripped the kunai in his hand tighter as he heard the Kyuubi chuckle deep within.

"_Kukukuku..._" If Naruto could've punched the beast, he would've. Everytime something particularly dangerous came along, the fox was there sitting in the back of his mind, laughing, waiting for Naruto to use more of his chakra. That, and he enjoyed watching the boy suffer.

"_Shut up you stupid fox...I don't see what's so funny about this. This is the akasuki, you could be a slave for all eternity if they catch you._" Naruto snarled mentally at the beast. He got another chuckle in return.

"_Kukuku...This time I'm laughing over an entirely different matter boy...I know the chakra you are feeling._" This got Naruto's attention.

"_And?_" The fox growled.

"_I'm not your slave boy, I don't have to tell you anything._" Naruto snarled viciously.

"_Tell me you stupid bastard fox! What the hell is going on?!_" All he heard was a low rumble of laughter and the beast lick his teeth in anticipation. He growled and turned his attention back to the sage who was glaring out into the rain.

"Well, are we going to go help her?" The man sighed.

"I suppose so...I'd rather not have her blood on my hands" And with that the two leapt into the pouring rain. Jiraiya looked for the trail of chakra that had been leaking from her and swore.

"She's shut off her chakra...we won't have the luxury of tracking her down the easy way...let's hope they haven't gotten too far." Naruto nodded and began to look for signs of a trail. Luckily, in the past years Jiraiya had taught him how to properly track. It hadn't been and easy task, but he finally mastered it, and could now track down a single lizard for several days. He just needed the tiniest bit of a trail...a broken twig, some displaced grass or moss, even the rare imprint of a footstep would help.

The two searched around for a sign of direction, and couldn't find anything. The sage cursed angrily. At this rate, she could be long gone by now, and they would have no idea where she went. It was insane! He had heard her mention running with ninja for a short while, but not really joining officially. But with these evasive skills, she could damn well be a jounin . Jiraiya thought hard as he searched for the trail. This made her even harder to trust...The akasuki were after her, she claimed to not be from any official village, had a familiar scent and chakra to both Naruto and himself, and now she had the potentially deadly skill of a shinobi. If only he could get a few more details from her...

His thoughts were suddenly cut short as he heard smelled the sharp chakra in the wind of the storm. It wasn't far from here... about a few miles or so to the northeast. He was certain the chakra he found was the akasuki's. It had to be...who else could be out here?

"Naruto! I think I've got them! Follow me!" Naruto snapped his head out of a large tree and nodded. The two then took off at the fastest speed they could go toward to the chakra they had found. It was seething, and crackling in the damp air, drumming as if it had a heartbeat. Jiraiya was certain he had found the right one. They had to hurry...and he had to be right the first time. She had the evasiveness of a shinobi, but he doubted she had the skill to defeat an akasuki member. Hardly anyone he knew did...

It only took about two minutes to reach the now powerful scent of chakra, and the two figures standing in the middle of their abandoned campsite. Although it looked to both Jiraiya and Naruto that a battle had broke out, they remembered (very embarrassingly) that all the smashed trees and broken ground in the area was their fault from earlier before. When they had reached the site, Naruto had almost rushed out straight into battle, before Jiraiya grabbed him.

"What are you doing?! Haven't I taught you anything?" Naruto glared at the sage.

"Come on! What are we waiting for? I thought we came here to do something!" The sage took the boy's head in his hand and turned it to the two standing in the field.

"We," He said carefully as he too stared at the scene, "Are waiting for the same thing they are. The beginning of the battle. If, that is why they're here..." Naruto looked at the man in confusement.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, we don't know anything about this whole predicament, or about her." Naruto observed the scene again. The two were simply standing there in the rain, both dripping wet, staring at one another. Neither spoke, neither moved. It hardly looked like a battle, much less the beginnings of a battle. The sage spoke again, softly. "...How are we supposed to know this isn't some sort of meeting? This could've been a trap for me and you." Naruto swallowed slowly again. "We are waiting to see what this is, and what will happen." The boy nodded, his eyes never leaving the two. Finally, after quite some time, the akasuki member spoke, a smug grin on his face.

"So this is it? You won't even make the first move? You know...I've spent some time tracking you, as have many. I want to see what you can do. I want to see what you're capable of..." He spoke with a wild fire in his eyes, a slight spark of madness and desire. It made Naruto's stomach flip flop at the sight. It was the same look Orochimaru had...the same look Sasuke had when he left.

The man waited patiently for her to talk back, but she merely held her head high and stared at him. He chuckled.

"Nothing to say? Really? Come now dear...I want to know what you have to say...I want to know what you know..." He tilted his head and began to pace in a circle. She stayed calmly in her place, her eyes following him as much as possible. The man continued. "You must know some fascinating things after all. You've been though so very much..." He made a full circle, observing her closely, as if she were a fine work of art. Finally, she moved. But it was nothing of notice. She merely pulled a small comb with a dainty red flower from her sleeve and pushed her hair back. She then slowly reached down to her long white skirt and ripped some of it off. She tossed it to the side and resumed her position. The man barked out a laugh.

"Are you finally ready?" She kept still. He chuckled and sauntered over slowly to her. She swallowed hard as he progressed nearer.

"Oh the things you will tell me when this is through..." He seemed to disappear and then reappeared behind her. He took her long white locks in his hand and felt their soft texture. "You truly are a fine beauty...a work of art. But that's to be expected...after all, with age comes beauty. And you my dear, have-" Naruto watched as the man was cut short by a swift kunai to the collarbone. He cried out in surprise and pain and leapt away. Inari was holding a bloody kunai in her hand, and a small grin on her face.

"You men...so easily distracted." The man in turn grinned maniacally.

"Well, now that I know we're no longer playing around...It's time to get down to business." He twitched his right hand and a giant white bird swooped down and picked him up. She whipped around, following him with her body, and flung a handful of shuriken and kunai with all her might. The man barked out a laugh and dodged the weapons easily.

"Come now! I thought we were over the games!" Inari smirked.

"We are!" and the kunai and shuriken came whirling back, this time with a completely different formation. It was as if they had arranged into a ball of some sort. The man flew from the objects yet again, only to have them follow him perfectly. Like they had a mind of their own. They twisted and whirled about him, flying in intricate patterns. The man gritted his teeth angrily and threw something into the weapons, a moment later exploding, and creating a brilliant flash of light. At that moment, all of the weapons seemed to drop, as if let go by whatever invisible hand was controlling them. The blond haired man seemed to notice this, and began to throw more of the small explosives into the air. With another bright flash, the weapons fell to the ground, and he gave out a victorious laugh. But his victory was cut short as his bird was suddenly taken from under him and whisked away into the forest as he fell to the ground. It looked as if he were about to fall 200 feet from the ground, until he flashed intricate hand signs making the ground shoot up from under him and fly him away safely from the ground. He aimed his view back at Inari, and darted toward her, his long blond hair whipping in the wind. She kept a calm expression, and then suddenly he was whisked from the rock, and she dodged the small piece of earth. The man looked around incredulously as he was suspended in mid-air.

"What jutsu is this?!" She began to float up toward him, her hand running through her hair.

"This...is what you would call darkness jutsu. I control all the darkness. Everything around you at the moment..." She smirked as the water dribbled gracefully down her face. "As long as you're in my environment, you can't get away with anything." The man's eyes were wide with fear as hers bore into his very mind. "You're not...afraid of the dark are you?" She purred into his ear. Suddenly, they were both thrown back as yet another explosion rang out in the field, lighting up the night. Inari fell a few feet before being caught again, while the man continued to fall, and finally hit the ground. He was breathing hard, but rose easily, much to her surprise.

"That was at least 100 feet, I'm surprised you're standing." He laughed, and she looked at the ground to see it had softened into a dark, thick mud that had simply sucked him down at his will rather than crushing him with the surface tension. Inari laughed.

"Clever, but..." The man backed up hesitantly, and was suddenly swallowed in darkness. He gave a cry out, before being smothered and lost in the dark. The mass lifted him high in the air and held him there, bubbling and stretching in and out as if it were a living being, trying to eat him for lunch. Inari was then too lifted up to be at eye level with the dark mass. She had a heavy lidded gaze as she held her hand out to the mass and stroked it as if it were a pet. There was a hallow look in her eyes and she said nothing for a long while. Eventually she drew in a shaky breath.

"Sadly...I think I must let you go. It would be unwise of me to kill you right now..." She licked her lips and closed her eyes. "Although...I do say it is quite tempting..." She sighed and let her hand drop, releasing the man, who went tumbling toward the ground yet again. This time, unconscious, he hit the ground with a reassuring crack while Inari flowed gracefully down, and kneeled down by his unconscious body.

"I don't know who you are...But I know what you want. And you're going to have to try so much harder. Trust me when I tell you, you won't be seeing me again." She whispered low and with a threatening tone. She straightened and looked out into the forest.

"And for his friend...I suggest you take him and leave before you come across a much worse fate." There was silence for just a moment before another man dashed out quickly and grabbed the unconscious member. He flashed Inari a quick look before prancing away with a giggle. She raised her brows, but said nothing. She looked toward Naruto and Jiraiya, and smiled. "And you doubted me."

(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)

The two stared incredulously at the battle. It was incredible. They had never seen anything like it. The darkness...Shikamaru's shadow jutsu was a cousin to it Naruto supposed, but this was on an entirely different level. In this dark they could hardly see anything, and when the kunai and shuriken suddenly moved of their own free will, it was mesmerizing. She could take anything, anyone out of the air or on the ground, and they would never see it coming. Nor could they stop it. Your only chance was either a flash of an explosion or lighting. It had taken them quite a while to figure out what was going on, but Jiraiya finally sucked in a gasp of air.

"Darkness jutsu...Incredible" Naruto looked at him questioningly. "You know about this jutsu?" The sage nodded. "I've seen it once or twice...It's an incredible jutsu. Damn near unbeatable unless you have a good light source." Naruto watched the battle with wide eyes. It was indeed an incredible jutsu. Who would've guessed a strange girl they found in the woods would have such a power? If Orochimaru went against such a jutsu...Naruto's heart pounded. With someone like her on his side, he could damn near beat the snake bastard. He felt low for feeling that way, but He wanted to convincer her to stay...to go to Konoha, and resume her place as a shinobi, and help him find Sasuke. He was shaking with excitement now. The prospects of rescuing his friend had never seemed so good...

He was snapped out of his reverie as the man next to him took in a breath of shock. Naruto snapped his eyes back toward the battle, only to find the man was gone. "Where-?" Jiraiya pointed at the dark spot in the sky. He was in awe. It was difficult to see, but there was a slightly darker ball in the sky, where Inari flew up to, and watched. He watched her carefully in turn. He could just barely make out the expression on her face. It gave him the chills. It was the same look he had first seen on Gaara. Bloodthirsty and tired. Lonely and lost. Like the world was dead to him, and that was the way he wanted it. She spoke a few words, but Naruto couldn't make them out.

"What is she saying?" Jiraiya just shook his head. He wasn't sure either. Then suddenly, the man was released from the mass and came to the ground, hitting it hard, and unconscious. Inari kneeled down and whispered more words to him. And as hard as Naruto tried, he couldn't hear her. He longed to know what she was saying. What was in her eyes. It frightened him to see that look in another human being. It wasn't right, and as long as he lived, he would make sure that no one he knew ever had that same look or feel to them. The life Gaara had lived...was a cold, dismal world full of loneliness, and in it he had turned to murder and blood. And Naruto was sure, that if both him and Gaara could be happy, so could everyone else. Though it sounded ignorant to some ears, it rang in others. As much as everyone hated to admit it, He had the charismatic ability to change lives for the better.

When he turned his attention back to the scene, he saw Inari call out something as she looked out to the forest. Not a moment after, another akasuki member dashed from the trees and picked up the unconscious man, only to dash away yet again. She watched him leave, with an amused expression on her face, and she turned back to face Naruto and the sage with a smile on her face.

"And You doubted me." She said it with a triumphant tone, and took a step toward the two, only to crumble to the ground. The two leapt from their spot to land beside her. Jiraiya pulled her up and laid her on her back. She groaned.

"I'll be fine...My chakra is just...stubborn." She lifted herself up to prop up on her elbows, and groaned again. "Ugh...I'm gonna be sick." And she was true to her word. A few moments later, she was in some bushes a few feet away, hacking and gagging on the vomit that left her system. Naruto didn't even know how she still had anything left to vomit. He hadn't seen her eat anything in the past days, since she claimed she was getting rid of the poison. It seemed that it wasn't the case. Jiraiya agreed.

"Why is it, that if you use even the tiniest bit of chakra, you get sick to your stomach?" He raised a brow as she walked back over to them with shaky knees. She pushed her hair back from her sweaty brow.

"I told you, I have stubborn chakra, and I'm stubborn in return." The man snorted.

"You really didn't tell me anything." She turned away and swept her hair in front of her face again.

"Actually I've told you quite a lot. Not my fault you're slow..." Jiraiya fumed angrily.

"I am not slow!" Naruto chuckled. The man wasn't technically slow...but he did often seem like it. But then he grimaced. He wasn't entirely one to talk. His eyes got wide.

'Oh no! I've turned into a mini Jiraiya!' He crouched on the ground pouting as he drug his finger in the dirt sadly. Jiraiya turned his attention to him.

"Something wrong kid?" Naruto hung his head and faced the sage.

"No...." The sage smiled and slapped his back.

"Alright then! Time for us to move, and then I can get back to my new book! I'm almost done did I tell you?!" Naruto sighed and gathered up his pack, ready to go again. He looked back at Inari, who was surprisingly ready to go again, her legs strong, and her eyes focused. Naruto shrugged his shoulders and began to run after Jiraiya. She followed closely, her hair whipping behind her, and her eyes focused straight ahead. Naruto wanted to talk to her, wanted to know if she was like Gaara..if she was lost like he used to be. He wanted to know if she was going to Konoha...and if she would help him. And it was as if she knew he wanted to ask her this, because she shied away from him and eventually ran ahead, a couple feet to the right of Jiraiya. The boy sighed. He supposed he wasn't entirely sure how to ask her anyway, there would be no point right now...

He felt a light, happy feeling in his chest. Determined. He hadn't felt this good in a long while in fact. He had a feeling of hope for his friend, and for his village. He was getting stronger, and he knew it. He was only a few months off of going home, and if all went according to plan, he would have the strength and help necessary to defeat Orochimaru, and bring Sasuke home.

AN: Ok so! I finally got some cursing in here, and a little action which was definetaly needed! Some cool new jutsu, and a ton of other stuff! I'm going to try to update faster, but i really do need reviews to keep me motivated! If you don't like something, and you think it would make the story better if I changed it, please please please press that button down there and let me know!

Also, just so we're on the same page, I'm lengthening the time that Naruto spends in training. Which means, I'm also lengthening the time sasuke has to keep his precious body, and the time that Naruto has from the akasuki. Other than that, I will be sticking to the original story as much as possible, unless I change it to suite my story! So just remember, time change, and ideas. I definetaly need ideas! And if you wanna see some other couples in here, also let me know, and if you wanna see some Romantic conflicts (Not that there won't already be some!) let me know. In the meantime, I'll try to get plugging away on the next chapter! Thanks!


	6. Secrets revealed

Chapter Five: Secrets revealed

Well still no reviews sadly, but i like this story that i've created and i'd very much like to finish it for once haha so here we go! Next chapter...

Naruto watched the two dance among the trees as they flew before him and he sighed. They had been at it for three hours now, and Jiraiya was showing no signs of stopping or slowing down. Naruto knew what he was doing of course, he was making absolutely sure that they didn't get followed a second time. He could see him mentally checking the air as well as all their chakras, and he was sure the man was listening so hard to their surroundings, he had almost hit one or two trees along the way. Naruto sniffed the air to test it briefly. Thankfully this time they were all keeping in their chakras, and making especially sure to leave no trail. His eyes flashed to Inari. She had completely closed off her chakra now, not even the slightest leak was trailing from her now. He could see her gritting her teeth, and a vain in her neck began to protrude ever so slightly. It was causing extreme discomfort to her at this point, and she had kept a steely gaze in front of her, showing obvious signs of pain and struggle.

Naruto kept silent for another hour as they still searched for a new territory, when he began to notice that Inari was no longer in front of him, and had now drifted several feet behind him. She kept her head bowed at this point, and Naruto could see now she had thrown a chunk of hair into her mouth to bite on. He had had quite enough at this point.

He kicked hard against a trunk of an old, gargantuan tree, and flew to get at the sage's side.

"We need to stop soon...I don't think Inari's gonna last much longer." The man nodded.

"I've been keeping a track on her. She's very close to her breaking point...She needs to let out some of her chakra and rest"

"When do you plan on stopping exactly?"

"We're not far don't worry...we're stopping in a village for a while." Naruto's brows raised in surprise. They hadn't been in a village for several months at least now. Jiraiya had claimed it dangerous to be spotted in an inhabited place for too long, which Naruto agreed with. Had they stayed in too many villages for too long, it would become far too easy to get discovered, not to mention distracted, especially in the Sage's case. After all, the last run in they had with the local village had been...needless to say bad. Naruto still had visions of the angry mob of women running at them both with whatever they had in their hands be it a knife or some other foreign object. Surprisingly they actually did a good amount of damage, making Naruto realize that whoever had spoken the words, "Hell hath no fury like a woman's scorn" was indeed a wise man. The boy sighed to himself. Hopefully this time they wouldn't have a repeat of that particular experience, and would actually be able to stay longer than two days.

Soon after that, Naruto began to spot the bright lights of a village up ahead, and his heart raised somewhat. Not only would he be able to get more information on Orochimaru, but he would be able to grab a few bowls (Only twenty or so...maybe thirty) of ramen and finally be able to bathe. All three very important, especially since both the teen and the sage were beginning to become very, very ripe. Although this would also mean that Naruto would be dragged along in Jiraiya's peeping antics, which would most likely earn him a black eye or two. Once they reached the outskirts of the town, the man stopped and turned to the both of them.

"Alright, time to release chakra if you need to, and before you do, just to warn you, the next time you both release chakra it will be in a spar." The man smirked evilly. He expected a glare in return from both teens, but instead Inari let out the breath she had been holding, along with a tsunami of chakra, sending the sage sliding back, as well as Naruto. She panted hard and knelt for a moment before rising.

"And what makes-" She took in a breath, "-you think you can make us?" Jiraiya shrugged with a smile.

"I have my ways of course." Ah, there were the glares.

"Why should I have to fight her anyway you old perv?" The boy huffed indignantly as he produced a big flock of clones surrounding them. He had a more efficient way of letting chakra go in his opinion. He felt his body relax with the excess energy gone.

"Because numbskull, you need to spar with someone else other than me. You can only go against me so many times before you know my style far too much, and at that point it's hardly fair and you aren't getting any sort of practice. Plus, she has a unique jutsu that would be good for you to practice against. And also, I'm betting she could kick your ass." He smirked yet again. Naruto seethed. He could literally kill the old sage at this point. "Right then! Let's grab some quick food and get somewhere to stay for a while." The man happily trudged off toward the village leaving the two fuming teens behind him. Inari sighed and began to go after Jiriaya while Naruto gave quick instructions to his clones.

"All of you disguise yourselves differently and head out into the village, see if you can get any new info on Orochimaru or Sasuke." The clones all nodded and with a big puff of smoke there were a hundred different strangers standing in front of Naruto, only to disappear a second later. Naruto lightly jogged to catch up with the two in front of him, meeting eyes with Inari.

"Doing some research with your clones?" It wasn't exactly a question Naruto noticed.

"You could say so I suppose." He smiled briefly. Just his luck, some one just as observant as Jiraiya to watch him. Fantastic.

The two were waved down by the spoken of man, and Naruto felt his smile drop just a bit as he noticed it was not in fact a Ramen stand. He perked back up not long after of course. There was always another day and time to get ramen!

They ate in a loud silence for a while, each merely sipping on their own small china cup of tea, and occasionally picking at their food. There was a tension in the air, hanging over them all, each being dared to speak, or move first. Finally, it was Jiraiya who set his drink down and spoke.

"I know I've already tried asking you...but I think I honestly have to again." He looked Inari dead in the eye as he spoke. "Who Are you?" He said each word carefully and slowly, never looking away from her face. She in turn kept her elegant poker face as she spoke back.

"I have already told you who I was, and everything you absolutely had to know." The man frowned.

"What exactly do you think we don't need to know?" She shrugged.

"Anything that could be detrimental to your survival or mine." The man scoffed.

"Please, you haven't even told us that much. You never explained why the Akasuki are after you, or why you have such chakra problems, you didn't even tell us you had them! And then your jutsu of course, you never exactly mentioned anything about that."

"None of which is anything you need to know." The man barked out a laugh.

"Then how do you expect us to help you?! To hide you? Hell, why should we even let you travel with us? You could be an S class shinobi for all we know now." Both Naruto and Inari paled. If Naruto lost her now, he could be losing a chance to find Sasuke, and defeat Orochimaru. He hoped the man honestly wasn't considering just letting her go. After all, it was clear she had something the Akasuki wanted, although, who wouldn't want someone with her jutsu on their side? If the sage let her go now it could be very devastating for them and a good number of other people.

"I assure you master Jiraiya, in due time you will know who I am...how long it takes is of course up to you, and after you know who I am, it's still your decision as to whether or not I am still welcome." Her last sentence chilled the two men. They both felt a sense of knowing her, and yet it wasn't there. Jiraiya kept eye contact with her, calculating her every move, word and feature, and yet nothing clicked. It aggravated him to no end. They took the last few sips of their drinks in an even heavier silence, before Jiraiya quickly paid the check and the group began to find an Inn. They luckily didn't have to search too far before coming to quite a luxurious inn, standing tall over the small village. The sage pulled them both in quickly, not that they needed much persuasion, after sleeping on the ground and trees, one of the first things on their mind was a large, plush bed to sleep on. But when they entered the small lobby, Naruto knew that the man had a little more in mind. There was a large group of pretty maids standing around, chatting with a rather voluptuous secretary. Naruto rolled his eyes. The man really did have a problem. He watched as the sage puffed his chest out, slicked his hair ever so slightly and strutted over to sweet talk the ladies. Naruto had no doubt that in no time he would actually end up getting himself kicked out, but he would wait and see what became of his antics.

Surprisingly, soon all the women were giggling and cooing at the man, and he came back with two keys. He held a triumphant grin on his face and sauntered over to the teens.

"Here ya go! I got the keys, and we're gonna be here for about a month or so," He giggled madly, "And on the bright side, the bath houses are huge, all the women here are pretty, and they are falling all over me!" Naruto squinted suspiciously at the man. Something was not right here...Since when did any of Jiraiya's plans work on women? Naruto leant over to the man.

"I swear you old perv, if I walk in on you again i will not hesitate to blow you and all of your 'parts' to pieces. Keep it down for once." The man giggled insanely.

"Luckily kid, we don't have to worry about that. I can't keep it down (Especially this time!) and we don't have to worry about you blowing off my uh, 'parts'" Naruto didn't like where this was going.

"...What exactly did you tell those women?" The man grinned evilly.

"Weeeeeell for starters, You two just got married, and are on your honeymoon." The two teens' jaws dropped.

"What?!" They shouted in unison.

"That's not even the best part! I told them I was your father kid," He pointed at Naruto, "And that I was a lonely old widow glad to see his son happy, and That I wanted to treat you to somewhere nice. They ate it up! We're staying here free!" Naruto had to admit, the man was smart.

"So you lied, and I'm just going to room with you right?" Naruto felt relief wash over him.

"No!" The man scoffed. "Weren't you listening? I get my own room to do as I please, and you two are sharing a room!" Naruto couldn't believe it. This had to be the absolute worst thing the man had done to him to date. Minus maybe the time he transfered him 15 miles away from camp by accident, in the middle of quicksand might he add. Then as if to make matters worse, the sage leaned in and whispered to the boy.

"And as for me keeping it down, you just try it yourself! In fact, try to 'get some' for once, you'll love it I guarantee it. Then you won't be able to harass me." Naruto's face flushed bright red and he stifled a nose bleed.

"Y-You old perv! You're sick! What other teacher would go and try to get his student laid?!" The man smiled.

"I know! Aren't I amazing? You two have fun now! I'll be in the bath if you need me!" Naruto flushed again and looked at Inari who had her hand slapped against her face and was shaking her head, her skin showing signs of a leftover blush. He sighed, It was going to be a long month, that was for sure.

"I don't know about you, but I'm going to go hit the baths too." Inari made her way over to the women's bath house and Naruto stopped her.

"Are you sure you wanna do that with him over there?" He gestured over to the men's bath house, where no doubt Jiraiya was currently sitting, getting prepared to go on a peeping frenzy. She shrugged and sighed.

"Well I'm going to be living with you in the same room for a month, and probably traveling with both of you for a while, so honestly, I may as well get used to it. That doesn't however mean I'm happy with it" She gave one last grimace. Naruto resisted the urge to salute her bravery. He had to admit, if he was a girl and in the presence of Jiraiya, he would be terrified. Not that the man was harmful in anyway, just that he could be very...odd at points. He stood there for a moment, before realizing her looked like an idiot, and then he too began to walk over to the bath house.

He set his bag down and stripped down, grabbing a quick towel for the short journey to the water, and prepared for the layers upon layers of dirt to come off. He sunk down into the hot water gladly, letting his muscles relax. He was the very least to say, 'angry' when he was ripped from the water.

"What the hell?!" He struggled against who he found to be none other than Jiraiya. "What is wrong with you you old creepy perv?!" The man giggled insanely.

"You have to see this!" He pushed the boy up against a stone wall, and forced him to peer through the large crack, giving a view of the entire bath house. The boy ripped his face from the wall and wiped away the small trickle of blood trailing from his nose.

"You old creep! I'm not helping, you peep, or peeping with you!" He began to walk away only to have the man grab him and push him back against the wall again.

"Well looky here, there's your girl." The man smirked. Naruto began to whip away from the wall, before hesitating. Perhaps...a peek wouldn't hurt? He slowly opened his eye that was peering through the wall, and felt relief when he noticed thankfully, the girl had already immersed herself in water, and was now turned with her back facing them. But he could've hit himself.

'What was I thinking?! What an idiot, I'm only going to get myself into trouble. I'm not like Jiraiya." He smacked himself mentally, cursing under his breath. But as he looked one last time, he took in a full view of the odd mark on her back. It was in the form of a tail he could clearly see the skin, looking as if it had been bleached or burned to give it a bright white color. In the hot water, it was beginning to turn a light pink color. He pulled himself away from the wall, angry, and walked back to the bath waters. The sage watched him leave and sighed. He shrugged. Some cases just couldn't be fixed.

He looked himself with a low giggle, and watched the giggling women chatter and gossip in the waters. Ahhh what a show what a show...He hated himself for it, but he couldn't help but look at the girl. Not in a moment of pervertedness, but rather in a moment of curiosity. Like Naruto, he got a full view of her brightly colored scar in the water. He stood transfixed, looking the blemish over. It was suddenly cut off however when she turned around and leant against the rock wall in a moment of relaxation. He noticed she had her hair tied up in a quick knot, keeping her long white locks out of the steaming waters. Slowly, she opened her eyes, revealing their bright blue irises, shining brightly in the falling sunlight. The Sannin's breath hitched in his throat. He couldn't believe it. It wasn't possible, it just wasn't!

It was her.

* * *

Inari threw on a robe and let down her hair carefully, padding her way up to the room she would be (reluctantly) sharing with Naruto. She sighed as she ran her hand through her thick white hair. She wasn't entirely sure what would become of this arrangement, but it was quite clear, it wouldn't be good. She padded softly to her door, and held her hand up to knock on the small wooden door, hoping the boy would be in the room by now. When suddenly, she was grabbed from behind and pulled into another room. She whipped around and bared her teeth, hissing madly, prepared to strike, when she noticed it was in fact Jiraiya. She stood up straight, regaining composure. Soft. Elegant. Normal. To fool and to trick.

She looked closer into his eyes, and found anger. Her heart dropped. Had he found out? Did he remember? _Did he know?_ He took in a quick breath and spoke in a low voice.

"I recognize you now." There was a pause, and Inari could feel her heart pumping her full of adrenaline. "How long exactly did you think you could keep this up? How long did you think it would take me to figure it out?" She shrugged.

"I was hoping I could avoid you somewhat, cover my face, cover my chakra, shorten my story, anything. Just to give me time. Otherwise you would have just kicked me to the streets, and spat in my face." The man's eyes thinned.

"With good reason. Do you have any idea of the mess you left behind? Do you?! Do you know what you did?! You could've stopped it! And instead you ruined his life, her life and Naruto's life! You practically killed the village!" The tears began to stream from the man's eyes. He couldn't remember crying this much for a long time. He watched as the girl's fists clenched and the knuckles whitened.

"Yes because you! You are so innocent in this entire thing aren't you?!" She hissed at him, tears threatening to fall from her already red eyes. "You couldn't have stopped him could you? You couldn't have helped? And at least I had the decency to stay for a while, and carry out my promise! You! You ran from it! Like a coward! As so did the others! The only one with enough decency left in him was the Third! And he could only do so much as the Hokage! You and Kakashi both ignored him! Neither of you cared for him! When I came back after three years, he was shut away in the shittiest place I have ever seen! There were dogs and cats living on the street better than he was! He was smacked around, yelled at, screamed at, avoided and most of the time they refused to feed him!" Tears were pouring from her eyes.

"And you didn't even give a damn to come back and look! When he was six he was kicked out of all of the orphanages! _All of them_! He was sent to a shit hole on the outskirts of town, sent to live on his own with a ration of food and no clothes to call his own! Six! He was _six!_ Throughout his life he was chased around, _beaten_ and _abused_ and you and Kakashi ignored him! I may have left a mess behind me, but you! You left a _hell_ behind you!" And with that she turned from the room, and slammed the door shut.

Jiraiya's head bowed. He had never felt a guilt so deep in his life. Never had he been yelled at or told off in such a manner before. Never had he taken a step back to look at what he had done. And now...he was paying for it.

(~~~~~~~~)

Inari sunk down by a wall and shook with heavy sobs. She didn't think she had ever yelled at anyone like that. Never. And now she was reliving the past sixteen years all over again. Sixteen years of pain, hate, sorrow, and loneliness. All racked with guilt. And yet he dared to accuse _her_. No, she couldn't of been any more angry than she had been. In fact it had been very long since she had shed tears of anger. Very, very long. She sat there, and laid her head in her hands, her hair creating a curtain, and waited for the tears to stop. She whipped her head up when the soft padding of feet on the elegant floor was heard. Naruto stood there, his hand in the air, uncertain if he should comfort her.

"Why are you crying?" He asked softly. There was a twinge of pain and sympathy in his eyes as he looked upon her. Like a parent looks at a child who has hurt themselves. His eyes were soft, and comforting. And yet he stood there, and uncomfortable look to his body. She looked him over for a moment and wiped away the tears angrily.

"No reason...Just some hurtful words and some bad memories." She smiled dully at him, as if to convince him she was alright. He frowned slightly.

"You're lying." Her smile fell and she took in a sigh.

"Yes. I am. But don't expect the truth." His head cocked to the side like a young pup.

"Why not? After all, if you're sad, shouldn't you want comfort?" She could've laughed, if she were not upset.

"Of course I want comfort, just not in your form I'm afraid." She smiled softly at him. "And my troubles don't concern you, so you shouldn't worry about them." That was a lie. In fact it was a complete and total lie. Her troubles had everything to do with him. They nearly revolved around him.

"Just because they don't concern me doesn't mean I can't help you, or comfort you." She slowly stood up as she spoke.

"Even so, I'll be fine in a moment or two."

"You're lying again." Damn the boy. She clenched her teeth and opened the door to their room with fury.

"Who cares anymore?!" And with that, the two both sensed the conversation was over. Naruto stood in the hallway, defeated and speechless, that is until an elderly woman passed and gave him an odd look as he stood there, nothing but a towel and a few things in his arm to cover him. Then he found it in his best interest to go ahead and go into the room.

When he entered, he looked in the large room for Inari, only to find the window thrown open, and a soft summer breeze flowing through. He looked at the window and sighed. There was no telling where she had gone, and Naruto didn't think he had the energy (Metaphorically of course) to go after her and try to talk the truth out of her. Come to think of it, he hadn't seen the sage yet either, and he usually popped in once or twice before the night was over. He groaned and flung himself onto the one bed. That would be a problem later he came to think of it. But for now, it would simply be ignored. He was far to drained to care at this point. He cracked an eye open and thought about closing the window, and then thought better of it. Hopefully the girl would come back in the middle of the night, and by tomorrow this would all be over.

Author's note!

Now, before you all start raising your brows about how much of the plot I have given away, trust me, it's with good reason! It's actually going to make the true plot more interesting in my opinion, but who knows! Oh that's right, you do! Please please review! I love them so. I need foodies for my story after all lol


	7. Irony

Alrighty, I know it's a little early for an update (for me anyway lol) And you're prolly really shocked that I'm actually keeping an almost good pace! I'm working on that haha but you still haven't reviewed =( but that's ok, I enjoy writing, and this is a nice story in my opinion, so I'm going to actually finish it for once! So enjoy!

Chapter: Irony

Jiraiya sat in the dark room quietly, his mind and stomach doing simultaneous backflips. He honestly, completely never expected to ever see her face ever again, and yet here she was. Back again, into his life. Not only that, but now she was close to Minato's son, as if the goddess of irony hadn't had a good enough laugh already. In fact, their fates were all intertwined yet again, and the man wasn't entirely sure what this meant for the future.

He sighed and put his face in his hands, wishing for some sort of guidance or help. He knew it wouldn't come, but he was hoping some old memory of his sensei, or his student would maybe come to mind. And yet he sat there, still waiting. Nothing. Just the quiver in his body as the guilt took its spot in his heart and mind. Deep in his mind and his gut, he knew he was guilty of ignoring his promise, and his duties. But as much as he knew it, he couldn't go back to the village. There were too many memories and heartaches in the city, and it was tearing him apart. Not only that, but there was beginning to be questions as to why one of the three legendary Sannin wasn't being used. And he didn't want himself or the hokage having to answer them. In all actuality, he wanted to be alone, with time to roam as he pleased, and no assignments. Thankfully, the Third had given him just that, and Tsunade had honored that.

But now he was in an entirely new situation. The past was clawing deep into his back, and he had to deal with it. He honestly didn't mind training with Naruto for three years, in fact they had bonded closer than they probably ever would have. But now with their new addition, it was getting more and more complicated by the day. He didn't even want to start to think about the future...For now he would have to keep his trap shut. Yes, very very shut. If Naruto ever found out any of this...there would be hell to pay, and Tsunade would make sure of it. Not only that, but the boy's reaction to it would be completely unpredictable, and with his new training, it would be best if it was kept under wraps for now.

After a while of sitting there in his own emotional turmoil, his sensei image appeared in his mind. 'What good does it do to mope and sulk about your problems? It doesn't help you, it doesn't help anyone else. So it's best to keep it to yourself and deal with it in the best way possible.' The man leaned back and stared at the ceiling. The old man was right. He had to deal with this. If he didn't, who knew what would happen?

And as if to save him from his own thoughts, there was a loud knock on his door, following with his student's bright and happy voice.

"Come on you old perv! Get up, It's way past our usual morning wake up! We're supposed to actually do something today!" The man smiled and went to the door, letting the bright haired shonobi in. "What's with you?! Have you really been sleeping this entire morning?! The lights are out and you look like crap, so I'm guessing that's a yes." The man shrugged and shielded his eyes from the bright light.

"Hey, I'm dressed aren't I? Lets go ahead and get moving then." And then as if finally remembering something, he opened his eyes and looked around in confusion for the girl. "Where's your friend?" Naruto sighed and shrugged.

"I have no idea, she ran off last night, really upset about something, and she wasn't back this morning. I still haven't seen her!" The man's stomach sunk. She couldn't have ran off, could she? Not after one little argument? His stomach sunk a little lower with guilt. He knew it wasn't little. It was a brutal, emotional battle cutting deep into both of their skins, and Naruto had already told him exactly how upset she was.

"You don't know why she ran off do you?" Naruto looked closely at the man's anxious face. Jiraiya shrugged, in false confusion.

"Your guess is as good as mine. We better go ahead and head off, maybe she'll turn up later today..." The sage moved toward the window and threw open the curtain, prepared to jump, when he noticed Naruto hesitate for a moment, before reluctantly following. To be honest, the sage mentally agreed with him. He wasn't sure which was best, to simply move on and wait for her to turn up, or go look for her as soon as possible before she caused trouble or disappeared. He took in a breath and jumped out the window, following his first instinct. He would do as his sensei instructed. He would hide his feelings and troubles, and deal with them when necessary. He wasn't entirely sure when this moment would come, but he had a feeling it would come soon...

Jiraiya sighed and bounced along the rooftops, leading the way to the outskirts of the village, and back into the forest. They would be back of course, they just needed a nice, secluded area to train. It was obvious they were shinobi, that wasn't a problem that the townspeople knew, the problem would be if they knew what they could do, and what they were capable of. That's when things would get dangerous. As long as they stayed in a secluded area though, usually they had few problems.

Once they got into the forest, the sage chose a very dark, very quiet place. It was a good area for their training, and in one case, a good area for a jutsu. But as the man looked around, he found no trace of the girl, and they didn't appear to have been followed. He ran his fingers through his hair and looked at Naruto in defeat.

"Well...I had planned for you to spar with Inari...but I guess that's not happening today..." 'Maybe not at all...' The man noted mentally. But just as he finished his thought, he was whipped up into the air by his hair and put to rest on a large tree limb. The man stood up, regaining his composure as Inari stepped out of the shadows.

"How wrong you are Master Jiraiya...I am here, and I followed you all the way here. Sadly you don't seem to be the shinobi I remember...Has time wasted you away?" She glared at him, daggers digging into his heart. There wasn't even a snide smirk of delight as she spoke, just pure hate. The man resisted the need to take a step back. He doubted even Tsunade was capable of such a hateful expression. Naruto luckily missed the look and became anxious for the promising spar.

"Well let's go then! I wanna kick your ass and get outta here." The boy remarked with a cocky grin. She rolled her head in his direction and stared blankly at him. Naruto's heart stuttered as the movement reminded him vaguely of his lost friend. She continued to stare at him, as if she was analyzing him ever so carefully. Finally she snorted.

"Jiraiya, is this boy even _worth_ my time?" Naruto gritted his teeth and clenched his fists.

"Why you-!" He ran at her, kunai in hand and ready to attack with full force, until he was lifted in the air and binded with invisible ropes of darkness. He yelled in anger as he realized he had walked right into the shadows of the trees. She put her hands on her hips and shook her head.

"Thank you for answering my question...It wasn't difficult by any means." She turned back to the man. "So, is he even half the worth as _him?" _The sage knew who she was referring to. He too snorted.

"It's hard to say...he's just as reckless, but not near as analytical unless the instinct kicks in, then it's like a ghost." She crossed her arms and looked at Naruto, who struggled and yelled down at the two of them.

"What the hell are you guys even talking about?! I can hear you you know!" Inari looked up at him and spoke.

"Well boy you convinced me, if it's a fight you want, then you got it." She released him and let him fall to the ground with a thud. She smirked as he scrambled out of the shadows. "Don't worry, I'm gonna kick your ass today with skill alone." Naruto growled, but luckily kept his composure this time. He watched as she began to shed clothes until she stood in a long battle kimono, with slits on both sides up to her waist, which was covered with bandages. She bandaged her hands in the blink of an eye and tied up her hair. Naruto's heart pounded in his head. This time was far different than then when she fought the akasuki member, he could definitely tell. She was serious this time. This time she wasn't going to play around. She was in full on attack and kill mode. She sunk low, and slow into an attack position as her eyes thinned.

"Lets see just how good you are boy." And with that she pounced like some sort of wild animal, her eyes intense with the instinct to fight. She was intensely fast, like a blur of light in the air. It was like watching Gai or Lee, but on a slightly lower level. Naruto cursed under his breath as he barely dodged her first strike, and then cursed loudly when he was stabbed a split second later in the shoulder. He slid backwards as he pushed off of her leg, and watched in awe as she went back for her next attack in merely one small tap of her foot on the ground. This time he threw up his own kunai and the two began a matched knife fight in the air. Both slashed back and forth, sending sparks as the two blades clashed against one another. Then out of nowhere she was gone, and then back again as she flew through the air and jumped on him from behind.

She growled menacingly as she kneed him to the ground and pulled both arms back. She held the kunai to his throat before he threw her off and began his own assault. But when he finally got close enough she disappeared in another flash and tried her own attack, which he usually barely dodged. They went at this for several more minutes before she stepped back and looked at Naruto.

"You'll have to try harder than that if you want to even land a scratch on me. Come on, use your head! You have brains in there somewhere don't you?" She taunted him as she spun the kunai in her hand with skill. He yelled out in anger and ran at her again. As they started their fast paced dance of attacking, he realized she was right. He would have to use his head. Not that he usually didn't, it just worked in odd ways sometimes. He pulled back from the fight and the two circled around each other. He had her beat in strength, but she had him beat in speed, and the two were almost equal in skill, but he suspected she had better skills that had yet to show themselves. He thought hard. How could he use his strength to an advantage? He wasn't entirely clear on his plan, but he had it at last, and he jumped at her once again, watching as she threw more and more strikes at him, jumping around him and through the air. Finally he saw an opportunity.

As she flew in the air above him, he grabbed her ankle and pulled her to the ground. She cried out and twisted about for an attempt to strike at his face, but her grabbed her wrist and stopped her hand inches above his face. Angrily she thrashed about for a well placed kick, but he threw her to the ground and kept her there, unable to escape. She kept her face to the ground, as if in shame and in defeat. He barked out a laugh.

So was I worth your time? Because it looks like I beat you." He flashed his cocky grin, only to notice she kept her face to the ground. "Well come on, answer me! Who's the better fighter now?!" She mumbled some words, and the boy frowned. He leant in closer to hear. "What was tha-" And suddenly he was being forced downward, as she turned around with a kunai in her mouth, pressed up against his neck. She smirked

"Don't talk shit before the battle's over" She said awkwardly with the blade in her mouth. Naruto cursed as he heard the sage down from his spot in the trees. The man had been surprisingly quiet during the entire thing, and now was also smirking.

"Well, you skimmed the surface, but you didn't quite get there." She spat the kunai out and kicked the frozen Naruto off of her.

"I figured. I wasn't so sure I could get it anyway. But he's nothing like him yet. The man I knew didn't even take a second before he had me. You have your work cut out for you Jiraiya." The man huffed.

"It's there, you just have to work to see it. It takes a while to get there, but he's just like him trust me. His training and upbringing was just far different." She hmph'd and muttered,

"No kidding..." The two's hearts clenched, as well did their teeth and fists. But neither said anything else. Jiraiya figured the argument was over, but wasn't entirely sure. He also wasn't sure if there was a winner yet, but he supposed it could wait. Naruto stomped up to him angrily.

"What the hell are you two talking about! Stop acting like I'm not here!" Jiraiya looked at him with pity. He wished he could tell him about his father, he really did. But now was not the time. He wasn't supposed to know until he was older, and wiser. Besides if he told him now, not only would the boy's ego increase by tenfold, so would his target factor, and the two would not mix very well. Not only that, but the boy would want more and more answers, and only get himself into more trouble.

"I'll tell you someday kid, hell maybe she even will, but for now, you don't need to know anything." Naruto grabbed hold of the man's front and looked him in the eye, his own now threatening to change into cat slits, and the whisker marks on his face were stuttering in and out of thickness. The kyuubi's breath fanned over the man's face, wreaking of charcoal and acid.

"Tell me." Naruto growled angrily. The sage slapped his hand away.

"Control yourself." He said with an air of calm. "You'll know when the time is right. Until then, you will go on living your life as if nothing is different." Naruto clenched his fists and shook with anger. He shut his eyes tightly.

"Don't you _dare_ talk down to me! I'm not some little brat anymore! This is something important! About me! I think I have a right to know! This stupid bastard fox was kept secret from me for years, I don't want something else important about who I am slip through my fingers!" Jiraiya looked away with shame. It was true, his whole identity was being kept secret from him as part of it had been for years. He had every right to know. But he couldn't tell him. He turned his heel before he could change his mind and walked back to the Inn.

"You training is done for today..." Naruto jammed his eyes shut harder, but couldn't stop the flow and the sting of the tears that were coming out. This was ridiculous, he was being ignored and talked down to, like a pathetic child. It was unfair, and the man knew it. His entire life was a lie, and now he was sure that more parts of it were as well. His whole world had been shattered apart and rebuilt so many times, he wasn't sure if he could handle another world shaking change of information. But he had a feeling it was coming and there was nothing he could do about it.

.................................................

After a quick, brutal, (and somewhat unnecessary) beating of a tree, Naruto made his way back to the hotel. He had it somewhat planned in his head. He was going to burst right into the room (Where hopefully Inari would be) and force her to tell the truth. Even if he had to attack or poison her, he would get the truth. This wasn't going to slip out of his reach again. He strode proudly through the hallways of the hotel (sadly he wasn't allowed to take the usual shinobi way through the window. After all, their existence and identity was suppose to be secret) and practiced the speech mentally. He smirked to himself, confident that his words would work. Although his mental pattern was somewhat disrupted as he passed the sage's room, and an unusual amount of music and giggling was coming from behind the door. He grimaced and shook his head. The man truly had no control. He then gave himself a self awakening shake and regained his thought train. He threw open the door to their room confidently and took in a deep breath of air, prepared for his speech of harshness and wit. However, he was stopped right in his tracks and all brain processing as he spotted Inari lying on her back, looking up at the ceiling with a bored face. Wearing nothing but her bandages on both top and bottom, and a pair of surprisingly skimpy underwear.

He blinked a few times, and was incapable of breathing or thinking. She turned her head, still wearing a bored look on her face as she acknowledged his existence.

"Oh, there you are. I was wondering when you would get back. Did you cool down a bit?" Her expression and voice were as calm as ever, while his was completely the opposite. "Are you alright?" She frowned slightly. He began to regain slight speech.

"Uh-guh-ah-buh-beh...uh, um....ah." He blinked a bit more, quite heavily, and a bit more words began to flood back into his brain. "Uh..ah your...um clothes?" He closed his eyes and willed himself not to look. But in the silence he looked up again and saw a confused look on the girl's face. She blinked with confusion a bit and giggled.

"So? What does it matter?" Naruto felt the blood starting to rush to his face and nose and he slapped a hand to his face as he looked away. His eyebrow twitched a bit.

"What do you mean _'what does it matter?_' It matters!" He heard her shake with light giggles. His fox hearing picked up the slight squeak and rattle of the bed. He moaned a bit and the blood flow from his nose started to become heavier.

"Are you embarrassed to see me without clothes?!" She said it loudly with a teasing tone. "You know, with your so called, 'sexy jutsu' I would imagine you would be used to seeing pretty girls naked entirely. Especially running around with Master Jiraiya." She had a point. And the twitch in his brow got a little more pronounced. Why should this have any effect on him? He supposed it was because he knew her personally, rather than her just being another stupid girl strutting around naked. He decided to defend his point however.

"What gave you the idea to strut around like that anyway?!" He looked her in the face, trying to focus on _only_ her face. She shrugged.

"I didn't feel like wearing clothes. I wanted to relax. I didn't think it would be that big of an issue. I've been with plenty of other men and it didn't effect them. They didn't really have a problem with it." He rolled his eyes.

_'Gee I wonder why..._' He thought to himself mentally. He could wave the answer in front of her face if he felt like it. However it was becoming increasingly harder to keep his eyes focused on her face. In fact, he had forgotten his whole reason for coming up to the room. He shrugged mentally. "I think I'm going to go walk around the village for a while..." He diverted his eyes to his small pack on the ground, and walked almost cautiously into the room. He searched for his money pouch furiously in his pack, only to remember he had hidden it in the folds of his jacket. His face flushed and he quickly got up.

"Alright, well hopefully Master Jiraiya and I will join you for supper. At least I will...We'll see if _he_ even makes an appearance tonight." Inari flopped back onto the bed, making Naruto resist a groan. He grunted a reply and walked out of the room as quickly as possible, almost using his shinobi reflexes and speed. It was obviously best that he got out of there as soon as physically possible. He had a feeling that she would continue to walk around half naked, but there was nothing he could do, except cover his nose, close his eyes and pray for mercy.

Inari watched him walk out and sighed. She didn't expect his reaction at all. At least, not now. She had hoped it wouldn't come at all. But it was as if history was repeating itself. She clenched her fists. She wouldn't let it happen again. After all, you were supposed to learn from your mistakes right? Not ignore them and let everything happen all over again. She closed her eyes and threw her arm over her face. She heard a chuckle in the corner and she whipped up and toward the man.

"Irony having it's way with you too?" The sage stepped away from the wall. She snorted.

"No kidding...I may as well be Irony's bitch." She thinned her eyes. "I won't let it happen though." This time Jiraiya snorted.

"You're a little late in that case, because it's just begun. And I don't think you can do anything to stop it."

"I can ignore it. Pretend it's not there."

"Yeah, because that's a good solution to everything." Jiraiya's sarcasm raged.

"Well then what else am I suppose to do?!" She said esaperated.

"...You could let it happen." She was silent for a moment.

"I won't let that outcome happen again. Nor will I destroy anyone's future ever again."

"Well, we just have to hope you can resist. But he has a good portion of his father in him. Let's see just how good you hold up..." The man had a smirk to his voice and Inari resisted the temptation to knee him in the gut.

"Fat chance...." She muttered as the man slipped back over to his room through the window. "I won't let it happen." And deep in her gut she began to feel slightly ill. She wasn't sure just how long she could keep this charade up.

AU: Review please please! Thank you! hopefully the next chapter will get up faster.


	8. Nightmares and Delusions

AU: BLAH! lol PS The secrets out (Incase you're that stupid) she was w/ Minato! Le gasp! Enjoy! It gets better :3

Chapter Seven: Nightmares and Delusions

Inari stumbled out of the room with a headache, and began to work her way into the village to find the boy who was in fact _responsible_ for the headache. She made a few twists and turns around the village as his scent hit her nose. However, it was done very nonchalant and mindlessly as she was having a bit of an internal struggle.

It was absolutely ridiculous. She was centuries old. Not only had that been a problem almost twenty three years ago, but now it was coming back around. She was ancient practically, and the men she happened to attract...were not. It was disgusting. Other women would be locked up, or shunned for this but no, it happened repeatedly to her and everyone seemed to be completely fine with it. Jiraiya had almost encouraged it. Not only that, but the boy...she had had relationships with his father. _That_, had to be considered wrong in someone's book. And yet...something in the world had a strange, twisted mind that was making this happen. She groaned. This needed to get out of her mind and fast.

Finally she caught sight of the orange clad boy sitting happily at a ramen stand. She rolled her eyes. That much was predictable. She sat next to him and put on a fake smile.

"There you are! I hope you haven't started without us!" And a second later Jiraiya joined the party, with a smirk on his face.

"Well good evening you two! I Hope I'm not intruding." Inari's brow twitched, but she kept a mostly calm face.

"Of course not master Jiraiya, what would there be to intrude on?" She said between gritted teeth.

"Oh I don't know, I was just making sure." The sage said happily. Naruto looked at them both with raised brows.

"Um...are you two...ok? You're acting really strange." Inari laughed a bit loudly.

"We're fine! Let's order already, I'm starving!" Naruto kept his brows raised, but said nothing more. He looked a the sage, who looked away. This couldn't be good news. Naruto shook his head and began to order. But before he could even get his mouth open, Inari spoke.

"I'll have a bottle of your strongest liquor sir." Naruto's mouth dropped open. He, like any other person had no issues with alcohol, but this was strange. Not very often did he see someone his age order something that would make even Jiraiya and Tsunade swoon. Much less any girl his age. He looked at Jiraiya, who's mouth was also wide open, and brows had nearly disappeared into his hairline. So even he knew, this girl was insane. There was no doubt, in a few minutes they would have an extra someone to carry home. He saw the sage slap his hand to his face as the stand owner put the bottle down cautiously.

"Er...will that be all?" The two men paused a second before blurting out their orders and practically mauling the man. But soon the two got their orders, and that was when Inari uncorked the deadly bottle of alcohol. Naruto could've swore he saw a few sparks fly from the bottle. He saw her glare at the bottle peculiarly, and take a big swig straight from the bottle. He saw Jiraiya's eyes come threateningly close to falling right out of their sockets. He watched Inari blink heavily a few times and shake her head.

"Well...It's strong, but not quite enough. I suppose a few more and I'll be good." She shrugged and took another heavy swig. Jiraiya frowned.

"Give some of that to me...Let's see just how strong this stuff is." He took a swig himself, and a second later his eyelids seemed to be a bit heavier, an his words were becoming jumbled. "Snot tuh bad...I've ad erse!" Although amazingly, his judgement and logic were still impeccable. Naruto reached for the bottle, just to see what the fuss was. However Jiraiya grabbed the bottle, a serious look on his face.

"I dunt thinkso kit. This-" He pointed to the bottle, "-And this-" He pointed to Naruto's stomach, "Dunt mix verry well" He pointed at Inari, his finger swaying a bit. "And you, I dunt knowa whyee you think thatzz gunna help you eny." Inari took a swig and this time rocked her head a bit, as if the alcohol was beginning to finally take effect.

"What I do to help myself is none of your business Jiraiya. Stay out of it. And I don't want any of this reaching my ears tomorrow morning." The man raised his arms in defense.

"Aye prumize!" She nodded and started on her second bottle. By this time, there were people watching from afar, as if to see just how much the girl could handle. Naruto wondered just when the deadly drink would begin to do its damage. And into the third bottle (after a LOT of rambling from Jiraiya) she was beginning to sway and swirl the same way as the sage, although her speech was still very clear. Naruto decided to take a chance.

"So...do you happen to know about my past" He looked her in the eye, hoping she had had enough, just enough, to let something slip. She giggled happily.

"Dear Naruto...I'm not quite drunk enough to tell you _shit_. Now, hand me the next bottle..." The boy blinked, he was half certain she had drained that last bottle. He watched as she struggled a bit with the stopper. She frowned unhappily at it. "Would you help me?" Naruto sighed. He really, really, did _not_ approve of this at all. This sort of drinking could not be considered healthy whatsoever. But he did as he was asked and uncorked the bottle, and she smiled happily when he handed it back. She turned to Jiraiya and the two began to burst into some sort of odd song together, while in between phrases, Inari would take a long swig of the drink. It was at the end of that bottle, Naruto began to notice something quite odd with her speech.

It wasn't the normal stumble, stutter, slur, or forgetfulness either. It was an entirely different language. And it was one completely unrecognizable. He wasn't even sure it was a language at first, until she began to lose parts of sentaces, and he realized the sounds she was making were words to her. It was an odd sort of whisper, combined with an odd screech and a low rumble of a growl. It harmonized with itself, and seemed to be forming words. He began to recognize similar sounds with words, making him absolutely sure it was a language. He turned to the sage, who was staring at Inari, an odd look to his face.

"Jiraiya, do you know what language it is that she's using?" The man shrugged.

"You gut meh." Naruto rolled his eyes and turned back to Inari, who had conned the stand owner into letting her have one more bottle before he closed, and was now prying it open. She sucked down half of the bottle and turned to him, a confused look on her face.

"You know..." She swayed dangerously as she spoke, "You know Minato, I like going on these outings... They make everything better. And I know you don't approve of it, but it's true you know..." Naruto frowned at the name, but let her continue. "After all, It's not that I hate Kushina, I adore her! But I was surprised, and scared, and I don't want to be left alone again. After all-" She paused to take another drink, "- I just found this home, and I'm not going to give it up without a fight! I'm glad you're happy, but please don't make me leave! I'll even become an ANBU if it makes you happy! I want you to be happy...and you are. I'm not making sense...am I?" Naruto nodded.

"No...Not really." She nodded back.

"Well...What I mean is...Konoha is my home now, and I'm, afraid that after Kushina has the baby, I won't have my family anymore. You know, I think Kushina may as well be my sister...and I think I will always love you. Is that alright for me to say?" She looked at him with a frightened look on her face. Naruto laughed.

"You don't need to become an ANBU, you told me you hate the shinobi lifestyle. And I don't know who Kushina is, or Minato, but I'm sure you'll still be allowed in their family." Inari frowned at him.

"You are not making any sense Minato. Where's Jiraiya sensei..." She called for the sage, who stumbled over quickly.

"Whuts wron?" Inari giggled.

"Jiraiya sensei, you look older than usual, did Tsunade use a jutsu on you again?" The man was silent for a moment. "When did you last see Kushina?" Inari looked at him with a confused look.

"Just today sensei. You were there too! And Minato is acting strange." She gave him what could only be interpreted as some sort of dirty look. Then suddenly, tears broke from her face. "Please please Minato! Don't send me away! I want to stay this time! Really I do! I want to stay with my family! I want to-" Jiraiya slapped a hand over the girl's mouth. He had a dark look on his face. And he also gave a look, that told Naruto he had sobered up.

"Alright, it's time to go kid. Grab whatever we left behind and lets get out of here." Naruto frowned but did as he was told, and hurried to catch up with the sage.

"Hey, hey! Pervy sage, what the heck is going on?" The sage lowered his head.

"She's just...had too much to drink." Naruto's eyes thinned. Now was his opportunity.

"Inari..." The girl swirled her head toward the boy. "Who...who are my parents?" The sage slammed a hand over the girls mouth, which was removed a second later.

"Really now sensei, you know that doesn't do any good! And I really don't know who your parents are Minato, you don't like to talk about them." Naruto shook his head.

"No no! I'm Not this Minato guy! My name is Naruto!" She gave him an odd look and giggled.

"Nice try Minato! I don't even think I'll live to see Naruto grow up to be as old as you...At least I hope not!" Naruto shook in frustration.

"You do know who I am then don't you! Tell me now!" Inari shook her head.

"No no no Minato! It's close to the solstice, I have to sleep...Leave me alone. After all...I'll see you tomorrow." Naruto punched a tree in anger. He was so close! He was so, very close... Finally Jiraiya's hand was set free and he readjusted her in his arms.

"Great...you happy now kid? You just upset her..." Naruto spun the sage around before he could walk away.

"Tell me what's going on! Who is that guy she keeps talking about? She knows about my past, doesn't she? I don't even know how that's possible, but she does! She's from Konoha!" The sage growled.

"Listen up kid! There are some things you just aren't allowed to know right now! And trust me, it's for the better! Now, what she's talking about, you don't need to know anything about right now. Hell, if I had it my way, you wouldn't have to hear it at all! She's different than normal people in case you hadn't noticed! And I can't even begin to explain why or how, all I can tell you is she's different. When she gets her body full of alcohol, she loses memory, sometimes more than usual. She was trying to get rid of this entire day, as if it had never happened. I don't know why, but all I know is she said a bit much, and it doesn't concern you what she's talking about." Naruto growled.

"If I have the right to know someday, don't I have the right to know now?"

"It won't help you, it'll only cause you more trouble. And that's that. I have strict orders from the third hokage himself that I wasn't supposed to tell you anything until you were older. And if you can't respect that then maybe you should just lose all respect for the Hokage now." That was hitting low and Jiraiya knew it. Naruto respected that hokage to no end, and would never dishonor that. He heard the boy take in a deep breath.

"Fine. But you better hope this information is well worth the wait." The man smiled tiredly.

"Oh trust me...it is. And for now, try not to upset Inari. I know a lot about this girl, more than you would ever think. And the last thing she needs it to be upset. And now she will be when she wakes up, you can guarantee that." Naruto was quiet for a moment.

"So...are you allowed to tell me about her?"

"That's not technically my secret to tell." The boy swore. It was infuriating how he wasn't allowed to know anything. But as long as the man kept his word that the information was worth his time, he could hold off. If even just a little. The rest of the way back, the two kept silent, and Inari sighed a bit in Jiraiya's arms. She looked rather peaceful and unguarded when she slept. Polar opposite to when she was awake.

They entered the two teens' room and the Sage laid her down on her bed ever so carefully. He let out a sigh and ran a hand through his extravagant hair. Naruto fell back onto his bed with a loud creak of springs and wood. He was confused needless to say. There was a whole category of things he didn't know, and it was growing by the day with both the man and Inari. He heard Jiraiya walk over to his bed.

"Alright, now get this into your head, she will be a bit panicked when she wakes up, and she may or may not cry. I'm betting she will but if she doesn't she may attack you for a split second. If that happens tell her she had alcohol and she will come to her senses. Don't tell her about anything she did or said last night or yesterday. The very last thing is for her to become too upset so try to accomplish that task. Overall if it becomes a little too much to handle I'll take care of it. Treat this like a mission." Naruto had to admit, it sounded...odd and unusual. But if it was coming out of the Sannin's mouth in a serious tone, it was not to be taken lightly. He nodded sharply and the man walked out of the room, stopping for only a second to look at Inari.

"...You wouldn't happen to know how far the solstice is would you?" Naruto shrugged.

"Dunno...I suppose three or four days?" He squinted at the moon for a bit, guessing. The man bobbed his head and then left without another word. Naruto closed his eyes and relaxed for a second, tensing up when he heard a dark laugh.

"_Kukukukukuku_..." He opened his eyes, and he was staring face to face with the kyuubi behind bars. He clenched his fists until the knuckles on each hand were a bright white.

"What the hell do you want you bastard fox?" He hissed out menacingly at the beast. He was a bit surprised, but the fox had been surprisingly quiet for an unusually long time, and he figured it wasn't long until it began to mouth off again. The fox replied to him with more laughing.

"_Kukukuku_..." Naruto growled in frustration. "_You really don't recognize her stench do you? You young fool_..."

"What the hell are you taking about?" The fox licked its chops angrily.

"_I know this girl, as do you...study her chakra and you will know what I speak of. And if you are that dense as to not sense her power...well then I suppose I should just let her attack you._" Naruto frowned.

"She won't attack me. I can sense that much. She's no threat to neither of us, including Jiraiya." The fox laughed.

"_Kukuku...study her chakra and you'll figure it out eventually._" Naruto snorted.

"You're just a stupid bastard fox. All you're good for is chakra, why should I even listen to you?" The Bijuu snapped angrily at the metal bars that restrained it.

"_AND I GIVE YOU MY CHAKRA DON'T I, YOU WORTHLESS FOOL?_" Naruto stood his ground, not budging an inch.

"Exactly. All you are as of now is a useless prisoner in my body. A tool of mine to use. And that doesn't include advice." The Kyuubi glared, his red eyes burning.

"_You'll be sorry_..." Naruto snorted and shot the beast a disgusted look before leaving. He opened his eyes, this time staring at the ceiling of the hotel room. He sucked in a deep breath. It was always mentally exhausting when he had to fight against the kyuubi. Especially when it decided to argue.

He sat up, not paying attention, and began to strip down to his shirt and boxers. Happily, he crawled back into bed, now comfortable and began to fall asleep, before hearing a swishing noise of sorts. He sat up abruptly and searched the room for the source. He looked over at Inari, who was now to his surprise in her earlier attire of 'barely dressed' and was facing him with a peaceful expression on her sleeping face. He saw something move behind her, and he sat up farther to see the source. However when he looked, it was gone. Whatever had been moving, was now gone. He rubbed his eyes tiredly. Whatever it was, it had had fur. He supposed it was some wild animal that had crawled through the window by mistake, and had scrambled out. His track of thought was interrupted by a loud sigh from Inari. He looked to see if she was awake, but it appeared that she was still passed out.

He looked at the girl with a piercing gaze. What could she be, that was so very unusual? THe sage knew what she was, making him wonder just how common her sort was, or if he had possibly met her before. That would explain her earlier rambling after all, but she had seemed quite...delusional. A good way to put it. However he knew precisely what she was rambling on about. It was odd, and now the Kyuubi claimed to know her. He searched all his possible memories, and found nothing. But the pieces just didn't add up right...

And with that thought, he drifted into sleep, the last thoughts of his mind incoherent as he slipped away.

Naruto awoke slowly, the first piece of information he processed was the Kyuubi's dark laughter, echoing darkly. He opened his eyes and noted it was still somewhat early in the morning, the sun was still far off from rising. He looked over to see Inari beginning to shuffle awake, and then suddenly she screamed. The very sound of it shook Naruto to the core. It was the kind of scream he had only heard in his nightmares. A blood curdling, and utterly terrified scream. His hands moved slowly to his ears in instinct. His hands shook and he gritted his teeth, trying to block out the sound. And yet his delicate hearing could still sense it, and if that wasn't he watched as she twisted and arched her spine, like some disfigured insect. Finally, he jumped from his bed and pinned her down. He remembered Jiraiya's instructions clearly. Treat it as though it were a mission. He looked at her face, trying to see the problem, or maybe an answer in her expression, however it was twisted and scrunched in agony. And then her eyes snapped open, the blood vessels in them threatening to burst open. She grasped his arm with a death grip and shook madly.

"Help me! Help me please!" Her voice cracked with madness and insanity. Naruto wasn't entirely sure what to do. He stumbled for words.

"I-I don't know what the problem is! What's wrong?" He looked her straight in the face, trying desperately to make eye contact, but hers darted around the room.

"P-PLEASE!" She screamed in desperation. Naruto searched his mind, hoping for an answer, when a strong surge of chakra burst from Inari. He cursed and hit a point in her neck. She slumped to the bed, her body now lifeless. Naruto felt his heart race. He had never seen something quite so terrifying in his life. Yes, he had seen battles, he had killed people, and he was now immune to even the most bloodiest messes. But the psychological madness of the shinobi world frightened him. Never had he seen someone breakdown from the inside out and destroy themselves.

He slid off of the bad and turned to face the Sage, who had stayed in one corner of the room for most of the frightening fit. The man had a thoughtful look on his face as he looked at the girl.

"What exactly was that?" Naruto questioned him. The man closed his eyes and folded his hands delicately over most of his face.

"A nightmare." Naruto's eyes widened. All of that was a nightmare? He couldn't imagine what she would have had to seen for such a terror to exist. Yes, he often had nightmares, most of them stemming from the Kyuubi. Often he saw the village torn to shreds, and his friends dead. The images made him sick to look at and think about. But never had he been completely and utterly horrified. Naruto wondered if he should ask.

"What-"

"What is it about?" The sage cut him off, finishing his thought. Naruto nodded. The sage opened his eyes and gave the boy a piercing gaze.

"Different things. But mostly...Demons killing her." Naruto swore his heart stopped for a full five seconds. The man closed his eyes again.

"Not just killing her though...brutally and mercilessly. She's told me about it...once. And kid," The man paused, a grim look passing over his face. "You don't want to know." Naruto's brows furrowed together as he looked back at the girl. If it was something that made even the Sannin's blood chill, it had to be terrible. He couldn't imagine what caused it.

"So...why does she dream about that?" The man was silent for a moment.

"She's...had a few bad run ins with other demons-The tailed Demons to be exact." Naruto gripped his stomach and his eyes narrowed.

"With the Kyuubi?" The man didn't answer.

"...Just try to keep that thing's chakra from leaking freely...I think that may have been the cause this time. Of course, it could've been the massive amounts of alcohol she drank..." The man laughed with bitterness. Naruto gripped his stomach tighter. This was bad...The man hadn't said it, but he had said enough. The Kyuubi had done something to this girl. He was somewhat confused at this point however. She didn't glare, she didn't curse him, and she didn't treat him like dirt. Nothing at all what the villagers did in Konoha. He was lost.

He looked back at her again, passed out and lifeless now. Gods, what was this girl? It drove him insane! And just as he looked at her, she stirred. He pulled back in shock. She should have been out for at least a few more hours. Jiraiya motioned for him to step back. She moved lazily for a moment, and then jumped at the open window. Naruto cringed as the fresh smell of bile trickled to his sensitive nose. He looked at her, now slumped by the window. And she began to shake. He took a step towards her, but was again pulled back by the sage. She slid down the wall and slumped by the bed, shaking with sobs. The tears poured freely and quickly down her face.

Suddenly Naruto felt himself being pushed out the door like a small child, and didn't realize what had happened until the door closed. He reached back towards the door and the let his hand fall. He sighed. It was probably best that he remained in the hallway. He began to walk away, when he realized, that now was the perfect opportunity to attempt to eavesdrop. The two were in on a conversation of their own, and he would be able to listen to it somehow. He pressed his ear to the door, and cursed. It was completely soundproof, to even his sensitive ears. His eyes darted around the hallway. There had to be another way to listen...

She didn't remember anything. As hard as she tried, she couldn't for the life of her remember what was going on. She sighed mentally. She must've been drinking again. Well, whatever it was this time, she supposed it was worth it to get rid of whatever had upset her. She mentally scanned what she remembered for the time being. She though hard, and was interrupted by a deep chuckle. Her mind stopped all mental processing. It stopped dead in its tracks, and suddenly in her dreams, a large fox appeared. Its hackles raised in a menacing grin, and its teeth dripping saliva in excitement. The nine tails behind its body swished menacingly. It laughed again.

"_Kukuku...So this is what has become of you? You have morphed into a human girl, and placed yourself in society? Of course, I suppose that's no different than before is it?_"

"You know dog, you seem to forget, I still rank higher than you." Her eyes narrowed. The fox snickered.

"_Is that so...Well if you embrace your true demonic side then that may be true, but for now you don't even rank as a bug in my radar._" She growled.

"I may not have the power to take tails away from you, but I sure as hell can kill you." The beast roared with laughter, spraying saliva everywhere.

"_And risk killing your precious boy? I don't think you would. And you know..._" The demon circled around. "_I don't think you could kill me if you had the power._" She barked at him and exposed a tail.

"If that's what you believe."

"_Oh but it's so_ true." Her head dipped a bit.

"And so what if it is? You're still a stupid bastard." The fox leant over her shoulder and swished a few tails over her.

"_And you're still just some bitch._" She narrowed her eyes.

"Not yet actually. You see, I don't care about the power, I won't become some bloodthirsty beast."

"_I think you already are. You just _**barely **_have control on it._" She turned around and snapped at his neck, the male jumping out of the way just in time.

"**That's a lie**!"

"_Is it?_" The beast snickered.

"_I suppose we'll just find out won't we?_" He licked his chops and paced around in a circle. "_You're just as bloodthirsty as I am, aren't you? You're not far off. You just barely have a grip on it...But if you slip, just once...You'll be on the same level as the rest of us._" She closed her eyes.

"**Shut up!** Shut up shut up shut up!" The beast laughed again.

"_You know, I think I'll just let you wallow in the memories of how close you were...To both death, and to the demonic state. Pleasant dreams my dear bitch..._" The demonic laugh echoed in her mind and she shook mentally. Unwillingly, the memories rushed at her.

Her eyes snapped opened, and the next thing she knew, she was in terrible, terrible agony and horror. She felt a presence try to help her and she snapped her eyes open again. She tried to identify the person, but her vision was so blurred with adrenaline and dillussions, all she could see was a blotch of blond hair. She took hold of the person.

"Help me! Help me please!" The person said something back, but the blood flowing to her ears and head was pounding so much she couldn't hear. She looked again at the blond splotch. Gods, she wished she knew who it was! The delusions flowed heavily, and the pain intensified. Her very soul was in peril. She screamed desperately.

"P-PLEASE!" She let out some chakra that was flowing dangerously, and the next thing she knew, she was unconscious.

When she next awoke, the memories flashed briefly, and her body was sore from the rush of chakra and adrenaline. She jumped to an open window and vomited. She slumped against a window and regained a bit of memory. It was a bad dream. A terrible, terrible dream, stemming from a visit from the Kyuubi. And she also dreamt...Minato. '_After all...I'll see you tomorrow._' She shook with sobs and slid to the floor like a useless blob. If it wasn't bad enough that that damn Bastard had to remind her of her condition...she had to relive all the horrors of her near death. And on top of that, her brain had decided to tease her with the thought of Minato...She didn't cry often, but this...this wrenched her heart and soul, both threatening to shatter like glass. She felt a hand on her shoulder and she threw herself back in shock. She opened her eyes and focused on a white blur.

"W-who are you? I can't see." The white mass shifted closer into a sitting position.

"It's only me, Jiraiya." She nodded. And it was silent for a bit.

"...Do you want to tell me anything?" She shrugged.

"The kyuubi...just offset a few things." Her voice was stable, but as hard as she tried, the tears continued to flow down her face.

"You had the nightmare." It wasn't a question.

"Yes...And I dreamt about Minato." The man nodded.

"I figured as much. What did the Kyuubi tell you?" She dipped her head.

"...Nothing. He just taunted me." She felt the man's hard gaze.

"Is that all?" She nodded. He snorted. "You suck at lying..."

"I don't think what he said was really any of your concern." The man shook his head.

"You still don't get do you? Anything that could put people in danger is my concern. Especially important people such as me, you and Naruto."

"No wonder your hair is so white." She said with a bitter humor. The man rolled his eyes and stood up. She head a few footsteps as he neared the door. He paused for a moment, and turned back to her.

"...The solstice is in two days." She closed her eyes.

"I knew it was close..."

"Are you going to be able to deal with it?" She shrugged.

"It can't be any worse than it is every year." The man scoffed.

"You can't be so sure of that...I know for a fact it can vary. He opened the door and stepped out. "Try to lay off the liquor next time kid." And with that the door closed.

AN: I do apologize a bit for this chapter lol the drunk slurring is sort of hard to write, but i did what I could. Also, I realize Inari is a very angsty character, if a tad too much right now. But that will change! Don't fret! I'm also trying extremely hard to stay MOSTLY with canon and personalities. I really do apologize if you feel that I'm writing out of character or canon a bit too much. Also her whole talk with 'Minato' is very odd and does not make a whole lot of sense. It wasn't meant to lol Just FYI. And this chapter bounces a bit...it almost feels like multiple chapters in one lol So sorry about that. Also, Now Naruto knows that Inari isn't just some regular girl. So now that's kinda outta the bag. But not really. He'll learn a lot of things about her (as will be revealed to the audience most likely BEFORE him!) and then gradually build up to a huge revealing of Yadayadayada. I can't really tell you, but if you haven't already figured it out, then WOW. Because my writing is pretty obvious lol. But anyways! Hope you enjoy as always, sorry for the slow ass updates, and please do review!


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